Martial Arts News

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…

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…