Martial Arts News

Shortly after he defeated Pedro Munhoz via unanimous decision at UFC 265 in arguably his best performance as a bantamweight, Jose Aldo suggested a fight with ex-champ T.J. Dillashaw to decide the division’s next No. 1 contender.

Andre Pederneiras, the Nova Uniao leader who serves as Aldo’s trainer, mentor and manager, approves of his fighter’s attitude but told Sherdog.com that he doesn’t believe a showdown with Dillashaw is likely. Dillashaw is coming off a split-decision triumph against Cory Sandhagen in the UFC on ESPN 27 main event in his first bout in more than two years.

"I would love for T.J. to say yes, but if I were his manager, right after he beat the No. 2 of the division, I would pressure the UFC to give him an immediate title shot and avoid a tough opponent like Aldo,” Pederneiras said. “But I hope I'm wrong and T.J. accepts the call to face him by December as Aldo suggested. I have no doubt that this clash of former champions would be monumental.” Read more

UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC UFC 265Credit: Getty/UFC

Derrick Lewis will be sidelined for a month following his technical knockout loss to Ciryl Gane in the UFC 265 headliner.

The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation recently released a full list of medical suspensions from the event to mixedmartialarts.com. UFC 265 took place at the Toyota Center in Houston this past Saturday and saw Gane claim the interim heavyweight crown with a stoppage of Lewis at the 4:11 mark of Round 3. Lewis is suspended until Sept. 7, while Gane is out until Aug. 17.

Specific reasons fo…

We Are BACK!@UFC announces #UFC267 will be held in Abu Dhabi on October 30. More info

[@VisitAbuDhabi | @InAbuDhabi | #InAbuDhabi]

— UFC News (@UFCNews) August 10, 2021 The Ultimate Fighting Championship is officially heading back to Abu Dhabi this fall.

The Las Vegas-based promotion announced Tuesday that UFC 267 will take place at Etihad Arena on Oct. 30. According to a release, the card is part of “Abu Dhabi Showdown Week,” which includes fan events, fitness showcases and more.

No bouts were formally confirmed by the UFC, but the card is expected to be headlined by a light heavyweight championship tilt between Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira. Other key bouts that have been reported include: Islam Makhachev vs. Rafael dos Anjos at lightweight; Khamzat Chimaev vs. Jingliang Li at welterweight and Alexander Volkov vs. Marcin Tybura at heavyweight.

UFC 267 will mark the promotion’s first event in Abu Dhabi since UFC 257 on …

A flyweight clash pitting Alex Perez against Matt Schnell has been pushed back one week from Aug. 28 to Sept. 4.

MMA DNA was first to report that Perez vs. Schnell will now take place at UFC Fight Night 191. UFC Fight Night 191 will be held at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a middleweight clash between Darren Till and Derek Brunson.

Perez will return to action for the first time since falling to Deiveson Figueiredo via first-round submission in a flyweight title bout at UFC 255 last November. Prior to that, the Team Oyama representative had been victorious in six of his first seven promotional appearances.

Schnell, meanwhile, has lost two of his last three UFC bouts. Most recently, “Danger” dropped a three-round verdict to Rogerio Bontorin at UFC 262 on May 15. Schnell is 5-4 in the Octagon overall, including a four-fight winning streak from October 2017 to August 2019.

After her scheduled bantamweight title defense at UFC 265 was scrapped due to a positive COVID test, Amanda Nunes is ready to get back to work.

American Top Team owner Dan Lambert informed ESPN on Monday that Nunes has been cleared to return to the gym and that the two-division champion hopes to fight before December. Nunes was slated to face Julianna Pena in the UFC 256 co-main event before the positive test forced her to withdraw from this past Saturday’s event.

UFC president Dana White said at the UFC 265 post-fight press conference that the plan was to rebook Nunes vs. Pena once “Lioness” was able to return to action.

Currently in the middle of a 12-bout winning streak, Nunes last defended her bantamweight crown in a five-round verdict over Germaine de Randamie at UFC 245 in December 2019. She has since defeated Felicia Spencer and Megan Anderson in 145-pound title bouts in her last two Octagon appearances.

Interim UFC heavyweight champion Ciryl Gane is currently a slight favorite in a potential matchup with undisputed heavyweight king Francis Ngannou, according to BetOnline.

Gane is listed as a -122 favorite, while Ngannou checks in at +102. The fight must happen before June 2022 for those odds to be valid. The promotion has not announced a date for a heavyweight title unification bout, but UFC president Dana White expressed a desire to book Gane vs. Ngannou “ASAP” on Saturday night.

A former training partner of Ngannou’s at the MMA Factory in Paris, Gane claimed the interim throne with a third-round technical knockout victory against Derrick Lewis in the UFC 265 headliner at the Toyota Center in Houston on Saturday night. After beginning his professional MMA career just three years ago in August 2018, “Bon Gamin” is 10-0 with notable victories over the likes of Lewis, Alexander Volkov, Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Junior dos Santos.

Ngannou, meanwhile, captured heav…

A middleweight clash pitting Edmen Shahbazyan against Nassourdine Imavov is in the works for UFC 268.

La Sueur was first to report the pairing. UFC 268 is expected to take place at Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 6 and is headlined by a rematch between Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington.

Shahbazyan began his professional tenure with 11 consecutive triumphs before falling to Derek Brunson and Jack Hermansson in his last two UFC outings. The Glendale Fighting Club member earned a contract with the promotion on Dana White’s Contender Series and began his UFC career with triumphs over Darren Stewart, Charles Byrd, Jack Marshman and Brad Tavares — the latter three inside of a round.

The 26-year-old Imavov has been victorious in two of his three Octagon appearances. Most recently, the MMA Factory representative scored a second-round technical knockout victory against Ian Heinisch at UFC on ESPN 27 on July 24. The Paris native is 10-3 as a professional, with e…

Logan Storley will square off against Dante Schiro in a welterweight contest at Bellator 265.

Sherdog.com confirmed the booking with a promotion official following an initial report from MMAjunkie.com. Bellator 265 takes place at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D., on Aug. 20 and is headlined by a heavyweight duel pitting Cheick Kongo against Sergei Kharitonov. The evening’s main card will air on Showtime.

A native of Roslyn, S.D., who was a four-time NCAA All-American wrestler at the University of Minnesota, Storley will look to rebound from his first career defeat. After beginning his professional tenure with 11 consecutive triumphs, Storley dropped a split verdict to current welterweight champion Yaroslav Amosov in his most recent outing at Bellator 252 this past November.

Schiro will enter his promotional debut with an 8-2 career mark. The Wisconsin native notably has two victories under the Legacy Fighting Alliance banner and is coming off a TKO tri…

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT GLORY announces its return to the GelreDome in Arnhem, Netherlands for back-to-back events. GLORY 79 will take place on 23 October 2021, followed by GLORY 80 in early 2022. Link below for full story https://t.co/RJ0LWmhm7X pic.twitter.com/5Xx1pTxZFm

— GLORY Kickboxing (@GLORY_WS) August 8, 2021

Glory Kickboxing is set to return to the site of its biggest-ever event for a pair of nearly full-capacity arena shows.

Glory’s GelreDome Return This week, the Singapore-based kickboxing giant announced two upcoming events at GelreDome in Arnhem, Netherlands. The two events will allow 27,000 fans, which is near capacity, marking another step in a return to normalcy for the promotion since the COVID-19 pandemic. Glory 79 will take place on Oct. 22, while Glory 80 will happen on a date to be announced in early 2022. No matchups have been announced yet for either card.

Glory’s last event at the GelreDome was the biggest in promotio…

For most MMA diehards, Vicente Luque has been a well-known commodity for a few years now.

However, it seems that UFC president Dana White is only just now giving Luque his due recognition after “The Silent Assassin” put away the streaking Michael Chiesa with a first-round brabo choke in a featured welterweight bout at UFC 265 on Saturday night at the Toyota Center in Houston.

“He is [a top welterweight] now,” White said at the UFC 265 post-fight press conference. “We’re talking about him now. First of all, that kid is fun to watch. When he beat [Tyron] Woodley, Woodley hadn’t won a fight in three years. He beat Woodley – OK. Tonight, not only did he beat Michael Chiesa, but when he went for that choke, I was like, ‘Why are you trying to submit Michael Chiesa? Get back on your feet!’ He got it. He did it.”

Luque is currently on a four-bout winning streak of his own, and his stoppage of Chiesa was his 13th finish at 170 pounds – the second most in the history of t…

Michael Chiesa hit a road block on his path to the top of the welterweight division at UFC 265.

After winning his first four appearances at 170 pounds, “Maverick” suffered a submission loss to Vicente Luque on Saturday at the Toyota Center in Houston. Making the defeat that much more painful is the way the fight started: Chiesa opened a cut under his opponent’s eye with a two-punch combination before landing a takedown and transitioning to Luque’s back early in the first round.

From there, Chiesa threatened with a rear-naked choke and a neck crank, but Luque was able to escape, transition into top position and secure a brabo choke, which forced the Sikjitsu representative to tap at the 3:25 mark of Round 1.

Chiesa later released a statement on Instagram in which he gave credit to Luque while admitting that he may have placed too much pressure on himself leading up to the fight.

First and most importantly, congrats to [Vicente Luque]. He’s a stone cold kill…

After a rough beginning, Jose Aldo has found his stride in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s bantamweight division.

The former UFC and WEC featherweight champion earned his second consecutive triumph at 135 pounds, as he showcased his skilled hands in a three-round verdict against Pedro Munhoz in the UFC 265 co-main event at the Toyota Center in Houston on Saturday night. The Nova Uniao star moved to the new weight class in late 2019 and began his bantamweight tenure with losses to Marlon Moraes and Petr Yan.

Since then, Aldo has authored back-to-back decision victories over Munhoz and Marlon Vera at 135 pounds to regain some much-needed momentum. The soon-to-be 35-year-old Brazilian credits some tweaks to his training for his performance at UFC 265.

“After I lost a fight, I felt I needed to incorporate more things into my repertoire and that’s how I got into Navy-sponsored boxing in Brazil,” Aldo said. “I feel that’s how it made better my punches and obvious…