Martial Arts News

Asking about a potential Amanda Nunes trilogy fight has become something of a tradition following each Valentina Shevchenko title defense.

That is due in large part to Shevchenko’s dominance at 125 pounds, which continued at UFC 261 with a second-round TKO of former strawweight champion Jessica Andrade. Shevchenko’s most difficult flyweight bout arguably came at UFC 231, when she claimed the vacant belt with a five-round verdict against Joanna Jedrzejczyk. Since then, “Bullet” has rarely been tested.

Nunes has been similarly dominant at bantamweight and featherweight, but the last time she faced Shevchenko, “Lioness” won a narrow split decision in a 135-pound title bout at UFC 215 that many had going the other way. However, Nunes is now 2-0 against Shevchenko — she took a unanimous decision in their first meeting at UFC 196 — and Dana White currently doesn’t have much interest seeing them fight for a third time.

As it stands, there’s currently only one way White…

Yogibo presents #RIZIN28 and #RIZIN29 at the Tokyo Dome and Maruzen Intec Arena Hall respectively, Bantamweight Japan GP opening round confirms fight schedule, Yachi gets current SHOOTO Champion. https://t.co/YOvVSGXwSp

— RIZIN FF English (@rizin_English) April 25, 2021

Rizin Fighting Federation’s upcoming event scheduled for the Tokyo Dome will take place a few weeks later than originally anticipated.

Rizin CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara recently announced that the card, which was originally slated for May 23, will now take place on June 13 in hopes of allowing more fans into the venue.

“The Japanese government has declared the state of emergency in four cities starting April 25 to May 9, which will significantly affect the May 23 Tokyo Dome event. Therefore we have decided to push back the event to June 13,” Sakakibara said. “MMA will be making its return after 18 years, and we want to put in as many spectators as possible for such a historic…

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— ShayMyName2 (@imstillshannon) April 8, 2021

Eddie Alvarez’s disqualification loss against Iuri Lapicus at One Championship on TNT 1 has been overturned to a no contest.

According to a report from ESPN, a panel of 15 independent officials, One personnel, judges and referees unanimous determined that a “procedural misstep” occurred when referee Justin Brown issued Alvarez a red card to prompt the disqualification. While the panel confirmed that Alvarez landed multiple illegal blows to the back of Lapicus’ head, it also determined that the former UFC and Bellator champion should have initially received a yellow card, which constitutes a warning.

Due to the ruling, the red card has been rescinded and a yellow card has been issued to Alvarez retroactively. Additionally, the result of the bout has been officially changed. The identity of the members of the One Championship panel was not revealed. One Championship s…

The man who is likely next in line for a shot at welterweight gold was not impressed with Kamaru Usman’s performance at UFC 261.

Usman dispatched Jorge Masvidal via second-round knockout in Saturday’s headliner at Vystar Veteran’s Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. “The Nigerian Nightmare” drew the rivalry with Masvidal to an emphatic close after taking a five-round verdict against the American Top Team product in their first meeting at UFC 251 this past July. Usman has now won 14 fights in row in UFC competition and looks to be one of the most dominant champions in the sport.

Still, it should come as no surprise that Colby Covington didn’t have anything positive to say about Usman’s latest triumph, which came against Covington’s former training partner.

“It took eight minutes longer than when I would finish Jorge Masvidal every time we trained,” Covington said on the ESPN post-fight show. “That guy’s a journeyman. What’s he got, 15, 20 losses on his recor…

Anthony Smith may have handed Jimmy Crute his second Ultimate Fighting Championship defeat on Saturday night at UFC 261, but he still holds the 25-year-old Australian light heavyweight prospect in high regard.

“I wish I was half as good as him at his age,” Smith said. “He’s night and day better than I am at that point, or better than I was at that age, at that point in his career. I don’t just don’t want him to get his head down, don’t hang your head, keep your head up high, he’s a warrior. Robert Whittaker is not going to be around forever, so someone is going to have to carry that torch for Australia, and I think he’s that guy.”

Smith ended Crute’s night when a perfectly-placed leg kick left “The Brute” unable to continue after the opening stanza. As Crute struggled to stand before Round 2, the bout was waved off.

Even though he was struggling to find his footing between rounds, it initially appeared as though Crute would come out for the second round. When Sm…

It took a few years to get there, but Kamaru Usman is receiving his due recognition from Dana White.

The UFC president praised Usman following the welterweight champion’s latest triumph, a second-round knockout of Jorge Masvidal in the UFC 261 main event at Vystar Veteran’s Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday night. It was Usman’s 14th consecutive win within the Las Vegas-based promotion, a streak that puts him ahead of such stars as Georges St. Pierre, Jon Jones, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Demetrious Johnson. Only former middleweight king Anderson Silva (16) has a longer winning streak in UFC history.

“No matter how you feel, the guy is getting booed in there tonight, (but) he’s one of the best ever,” White said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “He’s on his way to probably being the greatest of all time. I mean, the guy is an absolute stud. He looks better every time he comes out.”

That praise is a far cry from White’s reaction to Usman three ye…

There has been some shuffling to this week’s PFL 2 lineup, and the end result is a welterweight showdown between Gleison Tibau and Joao Zeferino.

Tibau was originally slated to meet Alexey Kunchenko, while Zeferino was slated to face Magomed Magomedkerimov on Thursday’s card at Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. However, both Kunchenko and Magomedkerimov were forced to withdraw from the event due to undisclosed reasons. Sherdog.com confirmed the changes with a source close to the situation on Sunday.

A veteran of 28 UFC bouts, Tibau enters his PFL debut on a two-fight winning streak after besting Efrain Escudero and Will Brooks in his last two outings. The 37-year-old Brazilian has not competed since submitting Brooks at Battlefield FC 2 in July 2019.

Zeferino, meanwhile, has been victorious in four of his last five bouts. Most recently, he earned a unanimous verdict over Bojan Velickovic at a regular season PFL event in July 2019.

The PFL’…

She didn’t necessarily know if it would end the fight, but Rose Namajunas had an inkling that she would connect with a head kick at some point during her matchup with Weili Zhang at UFC 261.

As it turned out, the head kick made Namajunas a two-time UFC champion, as she floored Zhang with the maneuver before ending their co-main event bout with follow-up hammerfists on the mat 1:18 into the opening stanza at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Forida, on Saturday night.

The setup for the kick was almost as nice as the execution: Namajunas feinted a low kick with her lead leg before going upstairs and connecting cleanly with her opponent’s chin.

“I felt really good. I was calm. I had to control myself and control my breathing and stay calm. She kinda touched me with the low kicks and she hit a nice little jab, but I just stayed calm. I don’t know how to explain it I guess,” Namajunas said.

“I saw her body fall over really stiff and I was like, oh…

Kamaru Usman wasn’t pleased that Jorge Masvidal had a built-in excuse following their first meeting at UFC 251.

Usman garnered a five-round verdict over “Gambred” in that July bout, but Masvidal was able to claim that he was hindered by the lack of a full camp after accepting the fight on a week’s notice. Despite Usman’s victory being relatively clear cut, that little bit of doubt left a bad taste in his mouth, so “The Nigerian Nightmare” targeted Masvidal for a rematch following a stoppage of Gilbert Burns at UFC 258 in February.

The second time around, Usman brought some closure to the rivalry by knocking out Masvidal with a massive right hand and follow-up punches 62 seconds into Round 2 of their UFC 261 headlining bout at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday night. He also found a measure of peace that he didn’t following UFC 251.

“I’m satisfied,” Usman said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “That’s what I said, I was…

One bout removed from a five-round battle that was 2020’s “Fight of the Year,” Weili Zhang saw a 21-bout winning streak end in stunning fashion at UFC 261.

Zhang relinquished her strawweight crown when she was stopped by a Rose Namajunas head kick and follow-up hammerfists just 1:18 into the opening round of Saturday’s co-main event at Vystar Veteran’s Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. It was Zhang’s first appearance since defeating Joanna Jedrzejczyk via unanimous decision in an instant classic at UFC 248 in March 2020.

Though Zhang initially protested the stoppage, she later released a statement on Instagram congratulating Namajunas and expressing belief in her own ability to bounce back from defeat.

“I want to congratulate Rose on her victory,” Weili wrote. “She bounced back from her defeat. I believe I will also come back, only beat a great champion, to become a legend, and beat a legend, I will become a new me. Before, my goal was to win the UFC cham…

At this point in her mixed martial arts career, it’s hard to believe that Valentina Shevchenko, one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport, would have anyone doubting her ability to succeed in the Octagon.

And yet, Shevchenko was able to find motivation in the pre-fight narrative that UFC 261 opponent Jessica Andrade would be able to overpower her in the clinch or on the canvas.

“I don’t have fear to go and fight, to go and wrestle, to go and grapple, I don’t have,” Shevchenko said. “I saw and hear a lot from Jessica that she is so secure that she can be stronger than me, than she can dominate me on the ground. I knew it, but I didn’t want to say nothing because I know my power and what I can do.

“That’s why I was like OK, let her believe in this, and then when she feels the power, real power of myself, she’s going to be double frustrated.”

When all was said and done, Shevchenko tied a flyweight record with seven takedowns before stopping Andrade…

If anyone can relate to the injury Chris Weidman suffered at UFC 261, it’s Anderson Silva.

Weidman suffered a gruesome leg break after throwing the first kick of the fight in his main card bout against Uriah Hall at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville on Saturday night. The fight ended instantly as Weidman crumpled in agony to the canvas, and the former middleweight champion had to be stretchered out of the arena. According to a post-fight update from ESPN, Weidman was admitted to a hospital and will have surgery on Sunday.

The injury was eerily similar to the one Silva suffered throwing a leg kick against Weidman in their championship rematch at UFC 168 in December 2013. “The Spider” recovered to fight seven more times in the Octagon before parting ways with the promotion late last year.

On Saturday, Silva sent a heartfelt message of support to his former opponent on social media.

“My deepest and most sincere sentiments champ,” Silva wrote. “Ha…