Martial Arts News

Bellator MMA is not going to make it easy on Pam Sorenson in November.

MMA Fighting first reported on Friday that Sorenson (9-3) would be making her second promotional appearance against multiple-time featherweight title challenger Arlene Blencowe (14-8) at Bellator 271. The two 145-pound women with sights set on gold in the future will square off inside the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla. News of this booking has since been confirmed by the organization.

Sorenson made her successful debut with Bellator in August, capturing a split decision over ex-Professional Fighters League lightweight Roberta Samad. The departing Invicta Fighting Championships featherweight queen took over two years away from the sport after claiming the belt from Kaitlin Young in August 2019. Before winning the vacant strap against Young, she fell short to Felicia Spencer to suffer her first stoppage loss in 2018.

Australia’s Blencowe bounced back from a humbling submi…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8gq2Gu0dZk&w=560&h=315] Glory Kickboxing did not have to look far for a replacement to Alistair Overeem for the heavyweight title fight this month.

Overeem suffered an injury and was forced out of his fight with heavyweight kingpin Rico Verhoeven on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, Beyond Kickboxing was the first to report that Glory will be bringing one of its main card fighters in against Verhoeven, as Jamal Ben Saddik will face Verhoeven for the third time on Oct. 23. Saddik was set to take on Benjamin Adegbuyi in a rematch that night, and Adebguyi will now be facing Antonio Plazibat instead. Sherdog has since confirmed the news with promotion officials.

Saddik fought Verhoeven in 2017 at Glory 49, and the fight was close early on before Verhoeven knocked Saddik out in Round 5 with a head kick. Their first meeting came in 2011, and “Goliath” forced Verhoeven’s corner to stop the fight a minute into the second round. Now at 1-1…

On 23 October I will make my comeback at @GLORY_WS

You guys wanted it, now you got it. I’m looking forward to see all my supporters at #COLLISION3 Let’s make new memories together. The show must go on

Great work by Glory and my management for making this happen. pic.twitter.com/i0Z1VYJsTS — Gökhan Saki (@gokhantherebel) October 8, 2021 Editor's note: The article has been updated at 2:15 p.m. on Oct. 8 to reflect the news of Saki's first opponent.

Vaunted kickboxer Gokhan Saki is returning to the sport after over six years away and a two-fight stint in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The kickboxing legend known as “The Rebel” announced early on Friday morning that he has signed with Glory Kickboxing again. Saki (81-16, 1 NC; 58 KOs) will be competing on Oct. 23 at Glory: Collision 3, and per Beyond Kickboxing and a poster from the organization, he will be taking on James McSweeney (46-7, 31 KOs) in the co-headlining bout. Saki c…

LAST MINUTE CHANGE

Chris Curtis finally get's the UFC call!! He takes on Phil Hawes tomorrow on the #UFCVegas39 card. Curtis replacing Deron Winn. pic.twitter.com/00P6KETUmk

— MMA DNA (@MMADNANL) October 8, 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. At long last, Chris Curtis has joined the Ultimate Fighting Championship ranks.

On Friday morning, MMA DNA first broke the news that Curtis (26-8) has been signed by the promotion to step in on extremely short notice and face Phil Hawes (11-2) at middleweight. Hawes was originally booked against Deron Winn, but Winn was forced out of the match for non-COVID, non-weight related, undisclosed reasons. The signing was confirmed by multiple outlets, and then cemented when Curtis hit the scales on Friday to make weight at 184.5 pounds.

Shortly after Curtis successfully made weight, MM…

A pivotal Bellator MMA heavyweight clash is on the books for November.

On Thursday, MMA Junkie first broke the news that Tyrel Fortune (11-1) would be squaring off with Linton Vassell (20-8) at the heavyweight division on Bellator 271. The two big men will toe the line at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla., on Nov. 12. The organization has since confirmed the pairing to Sherdog.

Fortune was originally slated to compete at Bellator 269 against Vitaly Minakov, but he was forced out for undisclosed reasons and will be competing less than three weeks later in Florida instead of Russia. At the beginning of 2020, Fortune suffered his first career defeat at the hands of future title challenger Timothy Johnson. Since then, Fortune faced Jack May twice, winning the rematch after the first ended due to an accidental groin strike. In July, Fortune made Matt Mitrione tap to strikes in 105 seconds, improving his record for the most knockouts in Bellator hea…

A COLOSSAL ONE Light Heavyweight Kickboxing World Title fight and the highly anticipated semifinals of the ONE Women's Atomweight World Grand Prix headline ONE: NEXTGEN on 29 October! @PhogatRitu @_itsuki_h_ #ONENextGen #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/7zEU8f2MUA

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) October 7, 2021 With COVID-19 resurgent in Singapore, One Championship has decided to go back to closed-door, tape-delayed events.

Via press release on Thursday, One sent out the lineup for the first of a trio of events in the “Nextgen” series. The first, a live show, will take place on Oct. 29 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore, and it will feature six bouts including two kickboxing contests. The subsequent fight cards of Nextgen II and Nextgen III will air via tape delay on Nov. 12 and Nov. 26, respectively.

The live show of One: Nextgen will be capped off by a light heavyweight kickboxing title fight betwee…

Two weeks after a difficult weight cut led to the cancellation of her bantamweight bout against Macy Chiasson, Aspen Ladd will move up a weight class to replace the injured Holly Holm at UFC Fight Night 195.

Ladd will face Norma Dumont in a five-round, 145-pound bout on Oct. 16 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. ESPN was first to report the new matchup is close to being finalized. Ariel Helwani initially brought word that Holm had withdrawn from the UFC Fight Night 195 main event due to a knee injury.

The 26-year-old Ladd has not competed since December 2019, when she defeated Yana Kunitskaya via third-round TKO at UFC on ESPN 7. Since then, Ladd has had multiple fights fall through, including bookings against Julianna Pena, Sara McMann and Chiasson. Ladd did not fight at all in 2020 due to a torn ACL.

Dumont earned the biggest win of her career to date at UFC Fight Night 188, where she garnered a split decision over former UFC title challenger and Invicta FC cham…

A lightweight matchup pitting Jim Miller against Erick Gonzalez has been targeted for UFC Fight Night 195 on Oct. 16.

MMAjunkie.com was first to report that the bout was in the works. UFC Fight Night 195 takes place at the UFC Apex and is headlined by a featherweight duel between Holly Holm and Norma Dumont.

Miller is coming off back-to-back decision losses to Vinc Pichel and Joe Soleck in his last two Octagon appearances. The New Jersey native will be competing for the 38th time within the Las Vegas-based promotion when he faces Gonzalez. His last victory came at UFC on ESPN 11, a first-round submission of Roosevelt Roberts in June 2020.

Gonzalez enters his UFC debut having won four of his last five promotional outings. The 29-year-old known as “The Ghost Pepper” notably has an 8-4 mark while competing under the Combate Americas banner and is 14-5 as a professional overall.

Shortly after Bellator president Scott Coker announced that Patricio Freire had vacated the lightweight title, which in turned elevated his brother’s rematch with Peter Queally to a 155-pound championship bout, Sherdog.com spoke with Patricio to get a better understanding of his decision.

“There were some things bothering me,” Patricio said. “My brother was the No. 1 challenger. If he keeps winning, he will have to fight for the belt, and it doesn't make sense for me to fight for the belt if that happens. We know that if I weren't the champion, he would have already fought for the title. Then he had to fight Queally to continue his career since I was the champion.”

Patricio also revealed that his loss to A.J. McKee in a featherweight title bout this past July played an important role in his decision.

“Being beaten in the featherweight division and holding the lightweight belt doesn't make sense to me,” he said. “I have no ego to hold this status. It doesn't…

Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane are expected to square off in a heavyweight championship unification bout at UFC 270.

Multiple outlets confirmed that verbal agreements are in place for both fighters following an initial report from French outlet La Sueur. UFC 270 does not yet have an official location, but the card is also expected to include a key middleweight showdown pitting Derek Brunson against Jared Cannonier.

After failing in his first bid for heavyweight gold, Ngannou claimed the title with a second-round knockout of Stipe Miocic in the UFC 260 headliner. “The Predator” is currently on a five-fight winning streak in which he has finished all five of his opponents by KO/TKO inside of two rounds.

Gane, meanwhile, is undefeated in 10 professional appearances — including seven in the UFC. “Bon Gamin” claimed the interim championship with a third-round TKO of Derrick Lewis at UFC 265 on Aug. 7.

Five-round fights are no longer just for title bouts in Bellator MMA.

Bellator president Scott Coker revealed during "The MMA Hour." on Wednesday that the California-based promotion will transition to five rounds for all main-event fights beginning in 2022. The remaining non-title headliners in 2021 will remain three rounds, however.

“This is something that a lot of fans feel this happened in the last two or three months because of the way the chips fell in some of these fights, but really we’ve been talking about this for the last six to eight months,” Coker said. “We decided that starting Jan. 1 that all the main events fights will be five rounds.”

Recently, UFC signee Yoel Romero expressed confusion following the end of his Bellator 266 headlining bout against Phil Davis, which he lost after three rounds via split decision. Romero apparently thought the contest was set for five rounds. Another fight that could have warranted two more frames was the Bellator 2…

The stakes have been raised for the Peter Queally-Patricky Freire rematch at Bellator 270.

Bellator president Scott Coker announced during "The MMA Hour." on Wednesday that Patricio Freire has vacated the lightweight belt, which he has not defended since stopping Michael Chandler in 61 seconds at Bellator 221 in May 2019. As a result, Queally vs. Freire will be for the vacant 155-pound championship.

Patricio Freire addressed the situation shortly thereafter on Twitter. The younger “Pitbull” brother was a two-division champion before losing his featherweight crown to A.J. McKee at Bellator 263 this past July. For now, his focus is on regaining that title, while allowing his brother to have his own golden opportunity.

“Honor and family come first,” he wrote. “When I first won the LW belt it was just about revenge. It was still an honor, but with the loss at 145 I’m starting over. It’s time for the LW division to move on and for [Patricky Freire] to have his shot.…