Martial Arts News

Aiemann Zahabi now bears the look of a legitimate threat in the Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight division.

Economical standup and bulletproof takedown defense carried the Tristar Gym representative to a unanimous decision over onetime Resurrection Fighting Alliance champion Pedro Munhoz in the featured UFC Fight Night 246 prelim on Saturday at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta. Zahabi (12-2, 6-2 UFC) swept the scorecards with 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 marks from the cageside judiciary.

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Munhoz (20-10, 10-10 UFC) forced the Canadian onto the back foot but walked into heavy fire while doing so. Zahabi cut loose with two and three jabs at a time, fired right hands over the top and targeted the body whenever the mood arose. Munhoz stayed aggressive from beginning to end, but by the time it was over, visible damage had accumulated around both of the American Top Team-trained Brazilian’s eyes and his counterpart had built a nice lead on the scoreca…

Jhonata Diniz’s latest fight camp won’t go to waste.

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Diniz was scheduled to meet fellow knockout artist Derrick Lewis at UFC Edmonton in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on Saturday. However, Lewis was forced to withdraw due to a “medical issue” not involving his weight cut.UFC 309: Jones vs Miocic. Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order Now!

While Diniz couldn’t find a replacement opponent for UFC Edmonton, he won’t have to wait much longer. It was announced during the UFC Edmonton broadcast that the Brazilian will take on Polish veteran Marcin Tybura at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Tybura is 3-2 in his last five bouts and coming off a submission win over Serghei Spivac. Meanwhile, Diniz is coming off a unanimous decision win over Karl Williams, which is the only time he has gone the distance in his eight career wins.

A heavyweight bout pitting Derrick Lewis against Jhonata Diniz has been removed from the UFC Edmonton lineup.

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The Las Vegas-based promotion announced on Saturday that a “medical issue” that wasn’t related to his weight cut forced Lewis to withdraw from the event. No further details were provided.

Lewis made weight on Friday morning, tipping the scales at 266 pounds for his matchup with Diniz. However, “The Black Beast” did not attend the ceremonial weigh-ins later that day, leading to speculation that the former heavyweight title challenger might not be able to fight.

UFC Edmonton will proceed with 13 bouts. A women’s flyweight clash between Ariane Lipski and Jasmine Jasudavicius has been elevated to the main card. The card is headlined by a flyweight showdown between Brandon Moreno and Amir Albazi.

One of the UFC’s most popular fighters and the promotion’s all-time knockout leader, Lewis has been victorious in two of his last three Oc…

Merab Dvalishvili claims Umar Nurmagomedov refused to accept a fight against Yadong Song.

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Dvalishvili won the bantamweight title with a dominant unanimous decision win over Sean O’Malley at UFC 306 this past September. Nurmagomedov has since been calling for a title shot against Dvalishvili, who instead wants a rematch against “Suga.”

In the meantime, Nurmagomedov was reportedly close to finalizing a potential title eliminator with Chinese contender Song at UFC Tampa in December. However, Nurmagomedov recently announced that the matchup is off because “Kung Fu Kid” is injured.

Dvalishvili has now countered Nurmagomedov’s claim, accusing the undefeated Dagestani of ducking Song. The Georgian champ has always maintained that Nurmagomedov receives favored treatement from the UFC due to his relationship with cousin Khabib Nurmagomedov. Dvalishvili reiterated that even if Nurmagomedov gets the next title shot, he is undeserving of it.

“Don’t…

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Rose Namajunas isn’t looking to surpass Manon Fiorot for a flyweight title shot.

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Namajunas moved up to flyweight after losing her strawweight title to Carla Esparza via split decision in 2022. “Thug” suffered a hard-fought unanimous decision loss against Fiorot in her flyweight debut the following year. Namajunas has since racked up consecutive decision victories over Amanda Ribas and Tracy Cortez, earning relevance in title conversations.

Namajunas is scheduled to fight top contender Erin Blanchfield in the co-main event at UFC Edmonton at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. A win would likely make Namajunas a potential contender for the next gold bid at 125 pounds against Valentina Shevchenko. While Shevchenko is a training partner of Namajunas, “Thug” wouldn’t mind getting paid for what they would do in training anyway.

“That would be my dream matchup,” Namajunas told ESPN. “Obviously I’m a huge admirer of [Shevch…

Capping off the year with a BANGER 🔥@IanGarryMMA vs @NewMansa94 is the #UFCTampa MAIN EVENT!

Get tickets 👉 https://t.co/eoKeUgRb8k pic.twitter.com/QJofp85j9y

— UFC (@ufc) November 1, 2024 It appears the Ultimate Fighting Championship already had a plan for Ian Garry.

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Per a UFC release on Friday, Garry (15-0) will be coming to blows with Joaquin Buckley (20-6) in the main event of UFC Tampa, also known as UFC on ESPN 63. The two welterweights will get after it inside of the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, on Dec. 14. Garry had been calling for a chance to vie for an interim 170-pound strap against Shavkat Rakhmonov due to champ Belal Muhammad’s illness, but the promotion is going in a different direction.

Garry has passed every test since joining the UFC roster in 2021, introducing himself to the brass by smashing Jordan Williams at the tail end of the first round. The unbeaten Irishman has slugged his way up the welt…

First to the scale! ⚖️

Brandon Moreno weighs in at 125.5lbs!

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[ #UFCEdmonton is LIVE tomorrow on @ESPNPlus | 8pmET/5pmPT ] pic.twitter.com/EfSPqiIBlz — UFC (@ufc) November 1, 2024 The Ultimate Fighting Championship's return to Alberta, Canada, is now official after the UFC Fight Night 246 weigh-ins.

Sitting atop the 14-fight card is a flyweight main event between Brandon Moreno and Amir Albazi. Both men weighed 125.5 pounds and are ready for a five-round scrap. The 26 other fighters on the card also successfully made weight for their bouts, so the card will continue as planned.

Moreno (21-8-2) is hoping to break a two-fight losing streak after back-to-back split decision losses to Brandon Royval and Alexandre Pantoja. The former champ has previously beat Kai Kara-France and rival Deiveson Figueiredo before the current skid. Just 30 years of age, "The Assassin Baby" will look to show that he's still an improving…

Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Germaine de Randamie is hanging up her gloves.

In a statement posted on Instagram on Thursday, de Randamie (10-5) signaled her retirement from MMA. The inaugural UFC women’s featherweight queen stated that she hoped to take one more fight before calling it quits, but the schedule did not work out this year and she has decided to move on. The 40-year-old has competed once since 2020—including a lengthy layoff to give birth to a son—where she came up short to likely future title challenger Norma Dumont.

“Hey guys,” de Randamie wrote in a caption to her video statement. “With so many mixed feelings I’m sharing this message with you guys. I definitely didn’t plan or envisioned/dreamed it this way, but hey it is what it is sometimes. I begged the UFC for one more fight. But it had to be this year. I promised myself that I would retire from fighting December 31, 2024.”

She continued, “Unfortunately the UFC told me all cards a…

Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight champ Belal Muhammad’s foot is a balloon.

The 170-pound beltholder revealed on social media on Thursday that a bone infection in his foot—one that made a toe dangerously swell up—has forced him out of action for the next six weeks. As a result of this, Muhammad (24-3, 1 NC) will no longer be competing atop UFC 310 on Dec. 7. News of his withdrawal first came from Al Zullino on X, the service formerly known as Twitter. Per other outlets, the organization is trying to find a replacement opponent for challenger Shavkat Rakhmonov (18-0), but he may not remain on the lineup at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on that date.

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Rakhmonov chimed in after learning the news, wishing Muhammad well and expressing his interest in rebooking the matchup at a later date. He still has his eye on the prize.

“Wishing Belal a quick recovery,” Rakhmonov wrote. “We’ll meet when you’re back at 100%. For now, I’m ready to take …

Ailin Perez will square off against Karol Rosa in a women’s bantamweight bout at UFC 311.

Multiple outlets confirmed the pairing following an initial report from Gaston Reyno. UFC 311 takes place on Jan. 18. A venue and headliner have not been confirmed for the card, which is also expected to include a heavyweight showdown between Jailton Almeida and Serghei Spivac.

Perez has won four straight contests since dropping her Octagon debut to Stephanie Egger at UFC Fight Night 209 in September 2022. Most recently, the Argentina native known as “Fiona” scored a first-round submission victory over Darya Zheleznyakova at UFC Paris on Sept. 28.

Rosa, meanwhile, is 3-3 in her last six promotional appearances. The 29-year-old Brazilian kicked off her 2024 campaign with a three-round verdict over Pannie Kianzad at UFC on ESPN 61 on Aug. 10.

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Prior to UFC 308, Dricus Du Plessis was operating under the assumption that he was going to face Sean Strickland in a rematch for his next middleweight title defense.

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There was a shift in thinking, however, when Khamzat Chimaev submitted ex-title holder Robert Whittaker with a face crank 3:34 into the opening round of their co-main event clash at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi this past Saturday. As a result of that performance, Chimaev might have skipped to the front of the line at 185 pounds.

Chimaev definitely caught the attention of Du Plessis, who claimed the middleweight belt with a split-decision triumph over Strickland at UFC 297 before defending the strap with a fourth-round submission of Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 on Aug. 17.

“We always knew between Rob and Khamzat if there was going to be something exceptional that happens, there might be a change in the title fight,” Du Plessis told Radioraps. “We have no clarity on tha…

James Llontop will replace Charlie Campbell and lock horns with Mauricio Ruffy at UFC 309.

Llontop confirmed the booking via social media following an initial report from Te La Cante MMA. UFC 309 takes place on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York and is headlined by a heavyweight title tilt between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic.

Peru’s Llontop is still looking for his first promotional triumph. After competing on Dana White's Contender Series in September 2023, “Goku” has fallen to Chris Padilla and Viacheslav Borshchev in his first two UFC appearances. The 25-year-old Llontop owns a 14-4 career mark.

Ruffy, meanwhile, has been victorious in his last five professional outings. Also a former Contender Series winner, Ruffy made a splash in his Octagon debut with a first-round technical knockout win against Jamie Mullarkey at UFC 301. The Fighting Nerds product has finished all 10 of his career wins by KO or TKO.