Martial Arts News

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.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Aaf1IgX1sw&w=560&h=315]

Shortly after Khamzat Chimaev’s dominant victory over Jinliang Li at UFC 267, he took a moment to issue a high-profile callout to one of the promotion’s biggest stars.

Hey, Diaz, let’s go, brother,” Chimaev said in a post-fight media session. “Let’s go. You gonna get some smoke, bro. Let’s see who is the real gangster.”

Diaz, of course, is notoriously picky when it comes to opponents. The Stockton, Calif., native latst appeared at UFC 263, where he lost a unanimous decision to Leon Edwards in June. In an interview with TMZ Sports, UFC president Dana White said that the organization will at least entertain the thought of a Diaz vs. Chimaev booking.

“We’re gonna talk to Nate about it,” White said. “100 percent [down].”

Even if Diaz declines, White is impressed with the star potential of Chimaev, who has overwhelmed all four of his foes in the Octagon. That suggest a big promotional push for th…

The lineup for Bellator 272 continues to grow, as Jay-Jay Wilson will move up to lightweight to face Alfie Davis on Dec. 3.

Additionally, Kyle Crutchmer will square off against Oliver Enkamp in a welterweight contest. MMAjunkie.com was first to report the pairings. Bellator 272 takes place at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., and is headlined by a bantamweight title tilt between Sergio Pettis and Kyoji Horiguchi.

Wilson is making the move to 155 pounds after missing the featherweight mark for the third time at Bellator 265, when his clash against Adam Borics was canceled. The 24-year-old Kiwi is 8-0 as a pro, including a second-round TKO of Pedro Carvalho in his last outing at Bellator 257.

London’s Davis had a four-bout winning streak snapped at Bellator 259, where he fell to Alexdr Shabliy on May 21. The London Shootfighters native is 14-4 as a professional overall. A former NCAA All-American wrestler at Oklahoma State University, Crutchmer has been vic…

A Legacy Fighting Alliance featherweight champion and prized pupil of the Machida family, Bruno Souza has signed with the sport’s largest organization to make his debut against Melsik Baghdasaryan at UFC 268 on Saturday.

It’s a lifelong dream fulfilled for the 25-year-old Souza.

“Since I moved to the U.S. that was my ultimate goal. I really don’t care if it was a short notice, because I´m always trained and ready to fight,” Souza said. “Challenge given, challenge accepted.

Souza, who enters his first UFC foray with a 10-1 mark, signed a four-fight deal with the Las Vegas-based promotion. He is coming off a victory over Javier Garcia at Legacy Fighting Alliance 114 in September that earned him the promotion’s featherweight belt.

Souza is 25 years old and was born in Recife, Brazil. However, at the age of 4, he moved to Belém, Brazil, where he began to practice karate at the Machida Gym with patriarch sensei Yoshizo Machida. 

“We are v…

An atomweight clash with rankings implications is set for Rizin Fighting Federation 32, as Rena Kubota will lock horns with Miyuu Yamamoto on Nov. 20.

Promotion officials recently announced the full lineup for the card, which will take place at Okinawa Arena in Okinawa, Japan. Kubota and Yamamoto initially squared off at Rizin 2 in September 2016, with Kubota winning via first-round submission.

The card includes eight other MMA bouts: Mitsuhisa Sunabe vs. Yoshiro Maeda; Tomohiro Adaniya vs. Yuichi Miyagi; Bobby Ologun vs. Katsuya Kitamura; Daryl Lokuku vs. Noah Bey; Juri Ohara vs. Kohei Tokeshi; Haruo Ochi vs. Tatsuya So; Mizuki Oshiro vs. Aira Koga and Shinya Kumazawa vs. Tanner Lourenco.

“We are planning to put on monthly events for the rest of the year while following the guidelines given from the government,” Rizin CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara said at a press conference. “I am proud to announce that we will be holding an event in Okinawa for the first time in Nov…