Martial Arts News

Fans are coming back to Bellator MMA events.

The promotion announced Wednesday that fans will be allowed to attend Bellator 260 on June 11 and Bellator 261 on June 25. Both events take place at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. “A limited number of tickets” will be available for both cards on Friday, according to a release.

The organization’s last event in front of an audience was Bellator 240, which took place on Feb. 22, 2020 at 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland. After Friday’s Bellator 259, the California-based promotion will have held 16 events without spectators in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bellator 260 is headlined by a welterweight championship clash between Douglas Lima and Yaroslav Amosov, while an interim heavyweight title tilt pitting Timothy Johnson against Valentin Moldavsky will top the Bellator 261 bill. Both cards will be televised on Showtime.

In conjunction with the return of fans, Bellator announced a partnership with spo…

Credit: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com Credit: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com Credit: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com Credit: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com

Tatiana Suarez is nearing her Octagon return after neck issues have sidelined her since June 2019.

The former UFC strawweight contender told ESPN that she has been medically cleared and is targeting a 125-pound debut for her next promotional appearance. A bulging disc in her neck has plagued the former Olympic hopeful after a victory over Nina Ansaroff at UFC 238.

Suarez’s return might have arrived sooner, as she was cleared for training in February but she suffered a broken right hand in wrestling practice and a concussion in a separate instance while wrestling with her boyfriend. She plans on beginning her training camp “soon,” with September as a possibility for her next fight.

"I'm super excited to get back out there," she said. "It's fun to practice, for sure. But it's just different competing. Everybody knows that. It's super exci…

A bantamweight clash pitting former champion T.J. Dillashaw against Cory Sandhagen has been rescheduled for an UFC event on July 24.

MMAjunkie.com was first to report the booking. Dillashaw and Sandhagen were originally slated to headline UFC on ESPN 24 on May 8 before Dillashaw suffered a cut in training and the bout had to be postponed.

Dillashaw vs. Sandhagen will serve as the main event for the July 24 card, which does not yet have an official location.

Dillashaw has been sidelined since January 2019 after serving a two-year USADA suspension for a positive EPO test. The former bantamweight champion last appeared at UFC Fight Night 143, where his bid to capture flyweight gold was derailed in a 32-second TKO loss to Henry Cejudo.

Sandhagen has emerged as one of the division’s top contenders with victories in seven of his first eight Octagon appearances. The Elevation Fight Team representative has authored spectacular knockouts in his last two outings ag…

Derrick Lewis is not the person whose car you want to attempt to steal.

A Houston area man learned that lesson the hard way, as the UFC heavyweight posted a video on his Instagram account of the alleged thief being arrested by local police. “Mofo pick right/wrong car to break into,” Lewis wrote. “HE’S OK.”

In addition to sharing photo and video of the suspect and police on the scene, Lewis showed the damage done to his vehicle, and revealed bruises on his knuckles in an Instagram story.

Houston Police Department public information officer Jodi Silva confirmed to MMAFighting.com that Lewis apprehended the suspect when he returned from a workout and heard banging noises on the driver’s side of the vehicle.

“Mr. Lewis says he went over to the suspect, struck him, placed him onto the ground until the police arrived,” Silva said. “That’s the nicest way to put it.”

The suspect was then taken to the hospital and then booked on a charge of criminal mischi…

HE BROKE HIS ARM @AndreMunizUFC submits Jacare Souza in Round 1!! #UFC262 pic.twitter.com/dH6tn41xhZ

— UFC Canada (@UFC_CA) May 16, 2021

Ronaldo Souza underwent surgery on Monday to repair the broken humerus he suffered against Andre Muniz at UFC 262.

According to his Brazilian doctor Rickson Moraes, who followed the process from Rio de Janeiro, the procedure was a success and “Jacare” will be ready to return in six months.

“I just did a video call with him and saw the X-ray. The surgery was excellent. They placed two plates to fix the bones. The team that did the surgery will evaluate, but normally that type of fracture takes around six months for a complete recovery,” Moraes told Sherdog.com.

Moraes also compared “Jacare’s” surgery to the procedure underwent by Chris Weidman, who suffered a broken leg at UFC 261 last month.

“Both Weidman and Ronaldo have a fracture in the diaphysis of the bone (tibia and humerus). Both cases…

There’s no quit in Tony Ferguson.

“El Cucuy” suffered his third consecutive lopsided defeat at UFC 262, falling to Beneil Dariush via unanimous decision at the Toyota Center in Houston this past Saturday. Ferguson spent much of the fight being outgrappled by his opponent, including a moment in the second round where he was trapped in a tight heel hook. The former interim champion didn’t tap, but he appeared to be in visible pain before eventually escaping.

Though Ferguson didn’t provide an update on his health, he did seem resolute in his intention to continue fighting despite his recent struggles.

“Retire & Give These MF’s A Break!? No, I Don’t Think So. Not On My Watch... Now I’m Pissed,” Ferguson wrote in a statement on his Instagram account.

The loss to Dariush comes on the heels of lopsided defeats against Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje over the course of the past year. After Saturday’s fight, UFC president Dana White speculated that time mig…

The return of @SalahdineP!!! #KSW61 - June 5th - KSWTV https://t.co/Hh2J3S6Xf7

— KSW (@KSW_MMA) May 12, 2021

Salahdine Parnasse will square off against Filip Pejic in the KSW 61 co-main event on June 5.

The Polish promotion recently announced the featherweight pairing. KSW 61 takes place at the Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland, and marks the organization’s first event with fans in attendance since the COVID-19 pandemic took hold worldwide. The card is headlined by a heavyweight clash between Mariusz Pudzianowski and Lukasz Jurkowsi and is available via KSWTV.com.

Parnasse is coming off the first loss of his professional career, when he relinquished the featherweight crown to Daniel Torres in a first-round knockout defeat at KSW 58. Prior to that, the 23-year-old Frenchman had been victorious in his first five promotional appearances.

Pejic, meanwhile, snapped a two-fight losing streak in his last outing, as he scored an 11-second knocko…

Jon Jones is in no rush to return to the Octagon.

Negotiations with the UFC for a heavyweight title fight seem to have stalled at the moment, and that’s just fine with the former 205-pound champion, who is enjoying his time away from the sport.

“I’m not really sure when I’ll be fighting next, but some downtime after a decade of wins is a nice little change up right now,” Jones wrote on Twitter Monday.

I’m really not sure when I’ll be fighting next, but some downtime after a decade of wins is a nice little change up right now. https://t.co/fi8XSLLidD

— BONY (@JonnyBones) May 17, 2021

The message carries added significance after UFC president Dana White addressed media on Saturday night and touched on the possibility that “Bones” might not compete again. White has been critical of Jones’ desire to get paid more for a move to heavyweight, and has moved on to targeting a rematch between reigning champ Francis Ngannou and Derrick Lewis i…

There was a party in Sao Paulo to celebrate the return of newly-crowned UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira.

“Do Bronx” brought the belt back to his hometown of Guaruja, Sao Paolo on Monday, and he shared the moment with people throughout the area during a raucous fire truck parade throughout the city. Oliveira’s coach, Diego Lima, captured the joyous occasion in a video on his Instagram account.

How cool is this?!

@wilisgraffitioficial @chris.arts013 @leilagraffiti pic.twitter.com/dT2xyXWG3q

— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) May 17, 2021

In addition to the hero’s welcome, Oliveira also had a mural of his likeness dedicated to him by artist Wilis Cavalcante. Cavalcante told MMAFighting.com that he began the 1,070-square foot mural on Friday and spent approximately 24 hours painting until its completion on Sunday. The artist did his work without knowing the result of the fight.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0QZN1egW…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEs_8LSAWpM&w=560&h=315]

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is already in the process of moving into full-capacity venues, but it might not be back to anything resembling a completely normal schedule until next year.

UFC 262 at the Toyota Center in Houston on Saturday marked the promotion’s second event in front of fans since the COVID-19 pandemic altered protocol in March 2020. While the organization has pay-per-view events slated for Phoenix in June and Las Vegas in July that are likely to have little or no capacity restrictions, don’t expect to see the UFC’s smaller events following suit anytime soon.

“We’re not even looking at Fight Nights [for fans],” UFC president Dana White said on Saturday. “We didn’t even have gates in our budget until October and November. Right now, to start trying to find places for Fight Nights, it just makes no sense.

“We’ll stay at the cozy [UFC] Apex and do our thing for the rest of the yea…

Edson Barboza and Shane Burgos were involved in one of the most memorable bouts of the evening at UFC 262 on Saturday.

After a back-and-forth standup battle, Burgos was stunned by a Barboza right hand in Round 3, which resulted in a delayed reaction from the Team Tiger Schulmann representative. Burgos kept his footing momentarily but eventually tumbled to the canvas, and Barboza finished off the contest with a couple follow-up strikes 1:16 into the period.

“It was kind of crazy,” Barboza said of the finish. “I honestly didn’t really understand what happened at the time. After the fight was over, I was still moving forward and saw that he was dropping. I saw he couldn’t defend himself, but I didn’t understand what happened. I asked my coaches what had dropped him, because I didn’t see it. I want to rewatch the fight and see what exactly happened.”

Burgos, who appeared to be gaining momentum in the second frame before the stoppage in Round 3, released a statement…

Beneil Dariush was surprised as anyone that Tony Ferguson didn’t succumb to the heel hook he applied in the second round of their co-headlining about at UFC 262.

“How do you not tap to that heel hook? His knee popped, and it popped loud,” Dariush said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “I saw his face change for a second, and then he went back to normal, and he started kicking me in the body. That upkick he hit me with? That was pretty good.”

While Ferguson did grimace briefly, he continued to fight until the final horn of the third round. His movement did appear to be compromised in the final five minutes, which hindered his ability to produce any type of rally after falling behind on the scorecards.

“I hope nothing happened to his knee because that’s where your ACL goes,” Dariush said. “When you go for a heel hook, and it pops like that, your ACL can be gone. I know he’s a super human, and we’ve heard it over and over again, but I don’t want that on a…