Martial Arts News

Marvin Vettori cut through all the noise, focused on the task at hand and made sure he was the man who got his hand raised when the dust settled.

The Kings MMA rep stayed relevant in the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight division and rode a high-pressure, high-volume attack to a unanimous decision over Paulo Costa in the UFC Fight Night 196 headliner on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. All three cageside judges scored it 48-46 for Vettori (18-5-1, 8-3-1 UFC), who accepted the bout at 205 pounds due to the Brazilian’s inability to meet their originally contracted weight requirements.

Costa (13-2, 5-2 UFC) fought well despite the extra baggage and seemed to relish his role as the villain. He rattled Vettori with multiple head kicks and zeroed in on the body with brutal kicks and hooks from both hands. Still, Costa had no real answer for the Italian’s relentless output and also had to deal with being deducted a point for a second-round eye poke. Vettori co…

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Sherdog's live UFC Fight Night 196 coverage will begin Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.

Check out the MMA Forums to discuss the card or enter your comments and predictions below.

Round 1 A UFC fight card that may have otherwise been forgotten has suddenly drawn a great deal of attention thanks to the antics of the headliners. Nonsense and shenanigans, drama and genuine anger appears to have reared its ugly head, but it will make the show more interesting. We begin this 14-fight marathon offering that is currently being counterprogrammed by Bellator, KSW and Glory Kickboxing at the same time with a bantamweight bout. “The Dragon” Martinez (13-4, 4-3 UFC) will welcome Georgian newcomer Lazishvili (8-0, 0-0 UFC) to the organization. There is some dispute about Lazishvil…

Sherdog's live Bellator 269 coverage kicks off at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Check out the MMA Forums to discuss the card or enter your comments and predictions below.

The bout has been canceled after Gadzhi Rabadanov missed weight. Round 1 Bellator 269 kicks off in my hometown of Moscow at CSKA Arena, the same venue where the UFC helds its own historic event in late 2019. Kicking off the event, young featherweight prospects clash, as Englishman Aiden Lee (9-5) makes the trip into hostile territory to take on Russian Alexender Osetrov (8-2). Referee Kevin McCarthy will start the evening in Moscow. Osetrov starts the fight with a solid leg kick. Lee is firing technical front kicks, but the Russian avoids them. Lee tests him with a head kick, but Osetrov blocks and tries to counter with a punch, which is blocked. Both men are searching for the range, Lee more with kicks and Osetrov more with punches. Osetrov scores on a body punch and soon after may have hurt Lee with a short hook …

WHAT. A. FIGHT.

[ #UFCVegas41 live on #ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/URRFmKPLvI

— UFC (@ufc) October 23, 2021 Gregory Rodrigues strengthened his foothold in the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight division, as he struck down Jun Young Park in the second round of their featured UFC Fight Night 196 prelim on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Park (13-5, 3-2 UFC) bowed out 3:13 into Round 2.

Rodrigues (11-3, 2-0 UFC) dictated the terms of their ground exchanges—he advanced to the back with body triangles on multiple occasions—but flirted with disaster on the feet. Park pinned the former Legacy Fighting Alliance champion to the fence in the second round and let punches fly from both hands. Rodrigues seemed to be wilting but answered with a series of precise right hands, pushed the Korean Top Team standout across the Octagon, flurried along the fence and connected with an uppercut that had him out on his feet. It was enough to p…

The featherweight championship clash between Yutaka Saito and Juntaro Ushiku is official for Rizin Fighting Federation 31.

Both the champion and the challenger made weight on Saturday ahead of their 145-pound title tilt. Saito tipped the scales at 145.3 pounds, while Ushiku checked in at 144.8. Rizin 31 takes place at Pia Arena in Yokohama, Japan and will also see Kanna Asakura (107.6 pounds) square off against Saori Oshima (105.7) in the co-main event. The card can be viewed via pay-per-view here.

Saito claimed the featherweight crown with a unanimous decision triumph over Mikuru Asakura at Rizin 25. He has won three straight under the Rizin banner, including a split verdict against Vugar Karamov in a non-title bout at Rizin 28 in his last outing.

Ushiku is the reigning Deep featherweight champion and is coming off a split-decision win over Daisuke Nakamura in a title bout at Deep 102 Impact this past July. He has won seven of his last eight professional appear…

One-half of your main event LOCKED @BorrachinhaMMA

[ #UFCVegas41 | Tomorrow | Live on ESPN+ ] pic.twitter.com/YJLq775mNd

— UFC (@ufc) October 22, 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. The drama over the middleweight-turned-light heavyweight Ultimate Fighting Championship headliner came to an end when Paulo Costa hit the scales.

The UFC Fight Night 196 card being held inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday was to have a middleweight main event between Costa (13-1) and Marvin Vettori (17-5-1) in a battle of former title challengers and Israel Adesanya foes. On Wednesday, Costa announced he would not be making weight, and after a tumultuous turn of events on Thursday, the two agreed to a 195-pound catchweight limit before shifting it later that night to 205 pounds. Although this is a significant asterisk, every fighter o…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22wredTJ-Dc&w=560&h=315] A storied kickboxing rivalry that began over a decade ago will see its rubber match play out atop Glory: Collision 3 for heavyweight gold.

On Saturday, Glory Kickboxing will put on a blockbuster pay-per-view offering with heavyweights in the main and co-headlining slots. The marquee matchup pits Rico Verhoeven (58-10, 18 KOs) against Jamal Ben Saddik (36-8, 1 NC; 29 KOs) for all the marbles. All 20 competitors on this kickboxing showcase event successfully made weight ahead of the show.

Since losing a decision to Semmy Schilt at Glory 4 in 2012, Verhoeven has gone on an incredible run inside the Glory ring, winning his next 20 fights with the organization. The champ successfully defended his strap nine times, including once over Ben Saddik in 2017 in an absolute thriller that ended in the fifth frame. Along the way, Verhoeven also entered into a pair of one-night Glory heavyweight tournaments in 2013 and 2…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t70sSmSX-8&w=560&h=315] The bantamweight title tilt atop the latest KSW offering feels like a postlim after the two goliaths hit the scales in the co-main event.

At KSW 64, the fight card at the Atlas Arena in Lodz, Poland, will be capped off by a 135-pound championship affair pitting Sebastian Przybysz (8-2) against Bruno Augusto dos Santos (10-2). Despite gold on the line in that one, all eyes will instead be on the super heavyweight slugfest between Mariusz Pudzianowski (15-7, 1 NC) and Serigne Ousmane Dia (2-0). Like the days of Pride Fighting Championships, one competitor comfortably eclipsed the 300-pound mark with no issues. Two preliminary fighters did miss weight, but the event is now cleared to carry on.

Przybysz wrested the bantamweight belt from Antun Racic at KSW 59 in a bit of an upset, surviving a knockdown and making it to the end to capture a decision after five hard-fought rounds. The challenger Santos has gone…

BREAKING: Multiple sources inform me Josh Emmett has booked his UFC return against Dan Ige at #UFC269. This card is amazing. https://t.co/piGxeq51Oa

— Cole Shelton (@ColeShelton91) October 22, 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. Top-10 Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweights will dance on a card that is already stacked from bow to stern. The year-end UFC pay-per-view card of UFC 269, which already has a full main card as listed by the organization, has gained another major fight. Josh Emmett (16-2) will make his return after a year and a half away to take on Dan Ige (15-4) in a battle that practically guarantees action from bell to bell. The news of this Dec. 11 booking was first reported by BJPenn.com late on Thursday, and it was subsequently by multiple outlets and the UFC’s broadcast partner of ESPN on Friday.

The fight …

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsR89SPixaQ&w=560&h=315] After nearly a month off, the Legacy Fighting Alliance is back with a vengeance in a mile-high arena in Colorado.

LFA 116 goes down in the Dobson Arena in Vail, Colo., on Friday night on UFC Fight Pass. Capping off the 13-fight billing is a middleweight clash pitting Josh Fremd (7-2) against Renato Valente Alves (8-4). Of the 26 competitors to hit the scales – including the first eight in the amateur ranks – only one fighter missed weight: Dan Argueta (138)*, who came in two pounds above the bantamweight limit. His matchup with Rodney Mondala will otherwise continue as planned, although Mondala will receive a percentage of Argueta’s purse as a result.

Fremd will be looking to rebound from the first knockout loss of his career, as he fell short to future Ultimate Fighting Championship signee Gregory Rodrigues in May by knockout at the end of the middleweight tournament. Three wins under the LFA banner led h…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC8Avuctzqw&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. Editor's note: The article has been updated at 9 p.m. ET on Oct. 21 to reflect a change in the weight classification. The upcoming Ultimate Fighting Championship main event has gone through several transformations before setting on a new weight class on Thursday night.

At UFC Fight Night 196 Media Day on Wednesday, Paulo Costa stated matter-of-factly that he would not be able to reach the middleweight limit of 186 pounds come Friday for the weigh-ins. There were immediate concerns their headlining matchup would be scuttled, as Costa admitted to weighing 211 pounds on Wednesday afternoon, thus requiring a drastic 25-pound cut in less than 48 hours.

During that interview with the media, Costa hoped that he and Marvin Vettori could meet at 195 pounds or higher,…