Martial Arts News

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXTCMVUT4NE&w=640&h=360] Bellator 264 will proceed with a Bellator MMA middleweight title defense as everyone on the card made weight, including titleholder Gegard Mousasi and challenger John Salter.

Having regained the vacant middleweight title in a bout against welterweight champion Douglas Lima, Mousasi (47-7-2) now looks to make a successful defense. Mousasi has won 10 of his last 11 fights, with the lone blemish being a majority decision loss to Rafael Lovato Jr. "The Dreamcatcher" weighed 185 pounds for the title bout.

Salter (18-4) is riding a three-fight win streak that includes submission wins over Chidi Njokuani and Andrew Kapel. His last defeat came to Lovato Jr., which snapped a seven-fight win streak. Salter weighed in at 185 pounds on the dot.

Kendly St. Louis (162.5) failed to make weight for his lightweight clash against Justin Montalvo (155.75), and the bout has subsequently been scratched by Mike Mazzulli of t…

BREAKING NEWS: long-time Bellator featherweight contend-er Henry Corrales faces Vladislav Parubchenko on the upcoming #BellatorPhoenix event that will take place on Oct. 16. The same card will feature the light heavyweight Grand Prix semifinals.

— Tudor Leonte (@MrTudorLeonte) August 12, 2021

An upcoming Bellator MMA event’s lineup has gained a featherweight tilt, Sherdog has learned from a source close to the promotion.

Long-time Bellator featherweight contender Henry Corrales will meet Vladislav Parubchenko on a yet unnumbered Bellator event that will take place in Phoenix on Oct. 16.

In his latest cage appearance, former King of the Cage two-division champion Corrales (18-6, 6-6 Bellator) tapped to a second-round rear-naked choke at the hands of Johnny Campbell at Bellator 258. Prior, “OK” bounced back from a two-bout skid by overcoming Brandon Girtz thanks to a narrow split decision at Bellator 250.

The 28-year-old Parubchenko…

WOW!!!

Olympic hero @d_janikowski welcomes @PawlakMMA into the promotion at #KSW63!!

INSANE FIGHT!!!

Sept 4KSWTVKSW App pic.twitter.com/wh7kkglFJW

— KSW (@KSW_MMA) August 12, 2021

Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki has scheduled an interesting middleweight clash.

On Thursday morning, KSW announced that Damian Janikowski would face Ultimate Fighting Championship alum Pawel Pawlak at KSW 63. The 31-year-old Janikowski will welcome “Plastinho” to the Polish promotion’s middleweight division. Before turning to mixed martial arts, Janikowski (6-3, 6-3 KSW) made a name for himself by winning the Olympic bronze medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling in 2012. In his most recent cage appearance, he overcame Jason Radcliffe (16-8) thanks to a series of punches that halted the contest at the 4:41 mark in the second stanza of their middleweight encounter at KSW 59. Prior, WCA Fight Team’s ensign edged Andreas Gustafsson thanks to a narrow split dec…

Claressa Shields will face Abigail Montes at the 2021 #PFLChampionship on Wednesday, October 27th!https://t.co/WYQE9B4A9y

— PFL (@PFLMMA) August 12, 2021

The Professional Fighters League 2021 Season Championship will end earlier than usual.

On Thursday morning, the PFL revealed that this year’s finals would go down on Wednesday, Oct. 27, at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The promotion used to hold the championship fights on New Year’s Eve as the previous editions went down on Dec. 31, 2018, and Dec. 21, 2019, respectively. Fans can already buy their tickets for the event, with tickets prices ranging from $30 to $175. As always, the finale will see two fighters from each of the six divisions who made their way to finals competing for the much-coveted $1 million prize.

“There is no better place to welcome fans back in-person than at the 2021 PFL World Championship as $6 million and six world titles will be u…

Daniel Rodriguez has agreed to step in on short notice to face Kevin Lee at UFC on ESPN 30 later this month.

Rodriguez is a replacement for Sean Brady, who withdrew from the matchup due to a foot infection. ESPN was first to report the new welterweight bout. UFC on ESPN 30 takes place at the UFC Apex on Aug. 28 and is headlined by a featherweight clash between Edson Barboza and Giga Chikadze.

The 34-year-old Rodriguez has been victorious in five of his six promotional appearances dating back to February 2020, with his only defeat coming against Nicolas Dalby. Most recently, the 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu representative defeated Preston Parsons via first-round technical knockout at UFC on ESPN 26 on July 17. Rodriguez owns notable wins over the likes of Mike Perry and Tim Means.

A former interim lightweight title challenger, Lee will make his 170-pound debut against Rodriguez. “The Motown Phenom” has lost three of his last four outings, including a third-round submis…

Arman Tsarukyan will lock horns with Christos Giagos in a lightweight bout at UFC Fight Night on Sept. 18.

MMAjunkie.com was first to report the booking. The card is expected to be held at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and features a light heavyweight scrap between Anthony Smith and Ryan Spann.

After losing to Islam Makhachev in his promotional debut, Tsarukyan has bounced back to post successive triumphs over Olivier Aubin-Mercier, Davi Ramos and Matt Frevola in UFC competition. The 24-year-old Russian has been victorious in 16 of his 18 professional fights overall, with 10 triumphs coming inside the distance.

Giagos, meanwhile, has won four of his last five UFC bouts. Most recently, “The Spartan” submitted Sean Soriano in the second round of their matchup at UFC 262.

The lineup for Rizin Fighting Federation 30 continues to grow with the addition of five new bouts, including a featherweight tilt between UFC veteran Yuta Sasaki and Yoshinori Horie.

The four other confirmed matchups are as follows: Yusuke Yachi vs. Koji Takeda; Shinobu Ohta vs. Yuta Kubo; Shoji Maruyama vs. Chihiro Suzuki and Panchan Rina vs. Momoka under kickboxing rules.

Rizin 30 takes place on Sept. 19 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan and features the quarterfinals of the bantamweight grand prix and a non-title clash between atomweight champion Ayaka Hamasaki and Emi Fujino.

A nine-time UFC veteran, Sasaki is coming off a unanimous decision triumph over Kenta Takizawa at Rizin 26 on New Year’s Eve. Prior to that, “Ulka” suffered a broken jaw against Kai Asakura at Rizin 19 in October 2019.

Horie, meanwhile, is coming off a third-round knockout of Tetsuya Seki at Rizin 27 on March 21. The longtime Pancrase veteran has one Octagon appearance unde…

A pair of former UFC champions are scheduled to meet in a boxing match under the Triller Fight Club banner.

Former middleweight king Anderson Silva and ex-light heavyweight ruler Tito Ortiz will square off in a 195-pound bout on Sept. 11 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The fight is slated for eight rounds, and both athletes will wear 10-pounce gloves. MMAFighting.com was first to report the booking.

Silva vs. Ortiz will be on the undercard of the Triller Fight Club event that is headlined by a showdown between former boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya and ex-UFC title holder Vitor Belfort. The card will air on pay-per-view.

The 46-year-old Silva made his first boxing appearance since 2005 on June 19, when he defeated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. by split decision. “The Spider” is 2-1 as a professional boxer. Silva’s last Octagon appearance came at UFC Fight Night 181 on Oct. 31, when he suffered a fourth-round TKO defeat to Uriah Hall.

Ortiz, who recently …

Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC

A heavyweight showdown between Tom Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich has been added to the UFC Fight Night 191 lineup.

Promotion officials announced the pairing on Wednesday. UFC Fight Night 191 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Sept. 4 and is headlined by a middleweight clash pitting Derek Brunson against Darren Till.

Aspinall is currently on a three-bout winning streak within the Las Vegas-based promotion that includes finishes of Jake Collier, Alan Baudot and Andrei Arlovski. The former Cage Warriors competitor is on a six-fight winning streak overall in which only Arlovski has made it past the first round against him.

Pavlovich, meanwhile, has been victorious in 14 of 15 outings since beginning his professional tenure in 2014. The former Fight Nights Global champion lost his Octagon debut to Alistair Overeem via first-round TKO before rebounding to score back-to-back first-round finishes of Marcelo Golm and Maurice…

Ronaldo Souza is walking away from mixed martial arts at the age of 41.

“Jacare” announced his retirement in an interview with Combate. Souza ends his career with a 26-10 record that included a middleweight championship in Strikeforce and a stint in the UFC where he was one of the division’s top contenders.

“I've fought a lot, I retired from jiu-jitsu very early, I think I've fought a lot of MMA and I have no intention of fighting again,” Souza said. “It's really over. I'm retiring from MMA, and I'm returning to the sport that I made history, the sport I really like.

“I'm going back to training and, who knows, I'll go back to competing [in jiu-jitsu]. I'm challenge-driven, and jiu-jitsu for me is becoming a challenge, because it's very evolved, there's a lot of new stuff. It's beautiful to see.”

Souza exits the sport on the heels of a loss to Andre Muniz at UFC 262 in which he suffered a badly broken arm. “Jacare” had fallen on hard times in recent years…

Friday’s Bellator 264 card is down two fights due to “health and safety protocols.”

The promotion announced Tuesday that Danny Sabatello vs. Johnny Campbell and James Adcock vs. Nekruz Mirkhojaev have been canceled. As a result, the preliminary draw will begin at 7:15 p.m. ET/4:15 p.m. PT. According to a report from MMAFighting.com, Sabatello was forced to withdraw from the event after testing positive for COVID-19.

Bellator 264 takes place at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., on Friday and is headlined by a middleweight championshp bout between Gegard Mousasi and John Salter. The main card airs on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.

American Top Team’s Sabatello has been victorious in 11 of his first 12 professional outings, including a three-round verdict over Brett Johns in his most recent fight at Bellator 259. A veteran of 34 professional bouts, Campbell is coming off a second-round submission of Henry Corrales at Bellator 258.

Adcock was to make…

OFFICIAL: Fight Card is set for the final #PFLPlayoffs event on Friday, August 27th! pic.twitter.com/aaAalhwBBy

— PFL (@PFLMMA) August 10, 2021

The Professional Fighters League playoff event on Aug. 27 has been finalized with a lineup featuring featherweight and light heavyweight semifinals.

The card is headlined by a 145-pound semifinal pitting top-seeded Brendan Loughnane against No. 4 Movlid Khaybulaev, while No. 2 Chris Wade meets third-seeded Bubba Jenkins in the other half of the featherweight bracket.

Meanwhile, No. 1 Antonio Carlos Jr. locks horns with No. 4 Emiliano Sordi, while No. 2 Cezar Ferreira squares off against No. 3 Marthin Hamlet in the light heavyweight semifinals.

The semifinal bouts will air on ESPN2 and ESPN+ at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, while the preliminary bill streams on ESPN+ beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.

PFL Playoffs 3 Card:Main Card (ESPN2/ESPN+)Brendan Loughnane vs Movlid KhaybulaevChris Wa…