Martial Arts News

UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 271Credit: Getty/UFC Derrick Lewis will be sidelined for two months following his knockout loss to Tai Tuivasa in the UFC 271 co-main event.

“The Black Beast” received a 60-day medical suspension after a standing e…

#InvictaFC46 Fight Card Finalized, Tickets On Sale Now

Full Card: https://t.co/pfPmHu4E8V

Tickets : https://t.co/2DMGwS3Wfx pic.twitter.com/VSI3UBgD10 — Invicta FC (@InvictaFights) February 15, 2022

The Invicta FC 46 card has been finalized with the addition of two new bouts.

The all-female promotion announced the full six-bout lineup for the March 9 card on Tuesday. The event will include the following two additions: Kristina Williams vs. Flore Hani at flyweight and Nadia Vera vs. Fatima Kline at strawweight.

Invicta FC 46 takes place at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan., and is headlined by a flyweight championship clash between Karina Rodriguez and Ketlen Souza.

Broadcast details for the event will be announced soon, according to a release. Invicta’s last event aired on the promotion’s YouTube page.

Kayla Harrison’s free-agent options might have just gotten a lot more interesting.

The two-time Professional Fighters League lightweight champion told ESPN that she is pondering a transition to 135 pounds, a move that will include hiring a chef and consulting with a nutritionist. The two-time Olympic gold medalist has thus far competed primarily at 155 pounds and once at featherweight. If Harrison were able to make the cut safely, it would open the door for some interesting fights — especially in the UFC.

"I'm considering it," Harrison said of the move to bantamweight. "I heard that Julianna [Pena] said she'd move up to 145 if they paid her enough, so that's good news. That means I don't have to chop off an arm. ... I want to be the best. Everyone is talking about her.”

Recently, it appeared that the PFL was the leading candidate to re-sign Harrison, and one of the promotion’s press releases regarding the 155-pound Challenger Series mentioned the appeal of faci…

Two bouts have been added to the Eagle FC 46 lineup, as Ray Borg will face Ricky Bandejas at bantamweight, while heavyweight champ Rizvan Kuniev will defend his crown against Anthony Hamilton.

Eagle FC promoter Khabib Nurmagomedov informed ESPN of the matchups on Monday. Eagle FC 46 takes place in at the FLXcast Arena in Miami on March 11 and is headlined by a 165-pound clash between Kevin Lee and Diego Sanchez.

A former UFC flyweight title challenger, Borg defeated Cody Gibson in his promotional debut at Eagle FC 44 on Jan. 28. “The Tazmexican Devil” has won four of his last five professional appearances dating back to July 2019.

Bandejas is probably best known for handing James Gallagher his first career defeat at Bellator 204 in August 2018. The 30-year-old Catone MMA product has enjoyed only mixed results since then, posting a 4-5 mark while competing for Bellator and Combate Global.

Kuniev captured the Eagle FC belt with a third-round stoppage of Vla…

In recent months, Derrick Lewis has endured two of the most disappointing losses of his mixed martial arts career in his hometown.

This past August at UFC 265, “The Black Beast” suffered a third-round technical knockout loss to Ciryl Gane in an interim heavyweight title bout at the Toyota Center in Houston. And on Saturday, with a chance for redemption in the same venue, Lewis was knocked out by a devastating Tai Tuivasa elbow in the second-round of their co-headlining encounter at UFC 271.

Despite those setbacks, UFC president Dana White had plenty of praise for Lewis at Saturday’s post-fight press conference.

“He doesn’t always come up short. I mean, up until tonight he was the No. 3-ranked guy in the world, which is a big deal. He’s got the most knockouts in heavyweight history,” White said. “He went in against a guy tonight who’s on a five-fight knockout streak. He fought a 29-year-old guy tonight. Derrick Lewis is a bad boy, man. He’s been a lot of fun to h…

Bellator 274 is down one fight following the cancellation of a light heavyweight pairing between Christian Edwards and Kevin Haley.

MMAjunkie.com initially reported that the bout was off due to Edwards testing positive for COVID-19, and the bout was no longer present on an official lineup released by the promotion Monday. As a result, the card will move forward with 13 bouts.

Bellator 274 takes place at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., on Saturday and is headlined by a welterweight clash between Neiman Gracie and Logan Storley. The main card is televised on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. ET, while prelims air on the Bellator MMA YouTube channel, the Showtime Sports YouTube channel and Pluto TV at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT.

Edwards suffered the first loss of his professional career at Bellator 266, when he was knocked out by Ben Parrish 38 seconds into the opening round of their encounter last September. The 23-year-old Jackson-Wink MMA product was victorious in…

Heavyweight champion Philip De Fries will defend his crown against Darko Stosic in the main event of KSW 67 on Feb. 26.

The Polish promotion announced the pairing on Monday. KSW 67 takes place in Warsaw, Poland, and will also see Andrzej Grzebyk face Adrian Bartosinski in the welterweight co-main event.Additionally, a light heavyweight clash pitting Ivan Erslan against Hasan Mezhiev was also confirmed for the card.

De Fries in in the middle of an eight-fight winning streak that dates back to October 2017 and include triumphs in KSW, Bellator and M-1 Global. Most recently, the five-time UFC veteran defeated Tomasz Narkun via second-round TKO in a rematch at KSW 60 last April.

Stosic, meanwhile, has won three consecutive bouts since signing with KSW following a 1-3 stint in the UFC. After scoring finishes of Michal Wlodarek and Michael Kita in his first two promotional appearances, Stosic defeated Michal Andryszak via split decision in his most recent outing at KS…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x88cJAx7zV0&w=560&h=315]

Even in defeat, Roxanne Modafferi ended her mixed martial arts career on a positive note.

“The Happy Warrior” called it a career following a split-decision loss to Casey O'Neill at UFC 271 at the Toyota Center in Houston this past Saturday night. Modafferi exits the sport at 39 years old, with a 25-20 record compiled since the beginning of her professional tenure in 2003.

“I’m very honored and very deeply touched by the reception that the fans gave me,” Modafferi told assembled media after the fight. “And I really tried to remember that moment and know that everyone’s proud of me and is cheering for me and that was really cool, so thank you everybody.”

Though it might sound cliche, Modafferi truly did her best to leave it all in the cage against O’Neill. Though she was outlanded by a 229-to-120 count in significant strikes, Modafferi was pleased with her performance overall.

“I threw a lot of…

The championship clash between Bibiano Fernandes and John Lineker has a new date.

Fernandes will defend his 145-pound belt against John Linker at One Championship “Lights Out” on March 11. MMAFighting.com was first to report the new booking. The event takes place at Singapore Indoor Statdium in Kallang, Singapore.

Fernandes and Lineker were supposed to square off at One Championship “Bad Blood” on Feb. 11, but the bout was canceled when Linker tested positive for COVID-19. The two fighters were originally slated to meet at a Once Championship on Dec. 5, but the title fight was postponed once the card was canceled due to restrictions related to pandemic concerns.

The 41-year-old Fernandes was set to make his first appearance since 2019, when he submitted Kevin Belingon in the second round at One Championship “Century Part 2.” “The Flash” has won 16 of his last 17 professional outings dating back to 2011, with his lone defeat coming against Belingon in a title b…

Tai Tuivasa went toe-to-toe with Derrick Lewis and got the better of the UFC’s all-time knockout king.

“Bam Bam” ended a slugfest with Derrick Lewis in emphatic fashion, landing a standing elbow that caused “The Black Beast” to fall face first to the canvas 1:40 into Round 2 of the heavyweight co-main event at UFC 271. In the end, it was the type of effort that could even win over Lewis’ hometown fans in Houston.

“I thought I did well,” Tuivasa said at the post-fight press conference. “Come to Houston, I got a few boos at the start, but turned them into cheers.”

Tuivasa is currently in the midst of five consecutive knockout victories, making him one of just 24 fighters in UFC history to author a streak of that length. He still has a ways to go before he surpasses Lewis’ knockout mark, but the Aussie can envision a day when that record is his.

“He’s had his time and I think this is the passing of the torch,” Tuivasa said. “If I keep up doing what I’m doing,…

Israel Adesanya had to work a little bit harder to dispatch Robert Whittaker in the UFC 271 main event than he did in their first meeting. At the end of the night, “The Last Stylebender” was relatively satisfied with his unanimous decision victory.

“7 out of 10. Not bad,” he said in giving his performance a grade at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “Good night in the office, good chess match.”

Adesanya became middleweight champion for the first time at UFC 243, when he knocked out Whittaker in the second round. In the rematch, the City Kickboxing star prevailed in a more technical affair, but Whittaker was able to take some rounds on the judges scorecards, so it wasn’t the dominant win Adesanya and his team had been hoping for leading up to the fight.

“It’s easier said than done,” Adesanya said. “I don’t know people, I feel like they have goldfish memories, but when they’re in there with me, they realize ‘Oh s—t’ it’s not as easy as we thought.’ They just…

While Robert Whittaker disagreed with the scorecards in the UFC 271 main event, he nonetheless vanquished some demons even in losing his rematch with Israel Adesanya.

After relinquishing the middleweight crown to Adesanya in a second-round knockout loss in October 2019. Whittaker offered a much better performance the second time around, attacking behind his left jab and lead left hook while keeping his opponent off balance through takedowns and clinch work. Ultimately it wasn’t enough to offset Adesanya’s versatile striking arsenal, which notably included a knockdown in Round 1 and a steady diet of chopping kicks to the legs.

“I thought I did enough, I thought I did enough. Breaking it down, I think I lost the first round. I put myself together and I beat him to every punch. I got takedowns. I thought I did enough,” Whittaker said at the UFC 273 post-fight press conference.

“But it is what it is. That’s how work goes in the office. I’m going to go back evolve so…