Martial Arts News

Lightweight champion Charles Oliveira had a front row seat for the anticlimactic outcome of the UFC 264 trilogy bout between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor.

Poirier won via doctor stoppage when McGregor stepped awkwardly and broke his leg toward the end of the first round of their bout at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Prior to the injury, Poirier had impressed Oliveira by asserting his will from top position, dominance that was evident by a pair of 10-8 scorecards that were submitted in his favor.

“I tought Conor was favorite until the second round,” Oliveira told Sherdog.com. “From the third on, I thought Poirier would take it. But Dustin impressed me a lot, always walking forward, showing a great ground-and-pound game. When Conor stood up, he was already tired when the injury happened.”

Oliveira anticipates that his championship fight with Poirier will be scheduled for December. “Do Bronx” doesn’t expect his strategy to stray much from …

The boxing match between social media personality Jake Paul and former UFC champion Tyron Woodley has an official date and venue.

Showtime Sports announced Monday that Paul will square off against Woodley on Aug. 29 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio, which is Paul’s hometown. The event will air on pay-per-view via Showtime beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT and will also see WBC/WBO featherweight champion Amanda Serrano defending her belts against Yamileth Mercado.

“I can’t believe I get to fight in my hometown Cleveland,” Paul wrote on Twitter. “Aug. 29 [Tyron Woodley] is getting knocked out in front of my closest friends and family.”

Tickets will go on sale July 22. Paul and Woodley are expected to attend a press conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday to help promote the event. Paul vs. Woodley is slated for eight rounds and will be contested at a 190-pound catchweight.

Paul, who recently inked a multi-fight deal with Showtime, is coming off a…

NEW alternate angle of Conor McGregor threatening to kill Dustin and Jolie Poirier “in their sleep” and makes gun sign to his head:

“In your sleep you’re getting it, in your sleep you’re dead, you and your Mrs, it ain’t over” pic.twitter.com/r6nmjZAjQb

— Out Of Context MMA (@oocmma) July 12, 2021 After his victory over Conor McGregor in the UFC 264 headliner, Dustin Poirier revealed that his opponent crossed the line with some of his trash talk in the build-up to their fight.

The American Top Team product said that McGregor not only insinuated that Poirier’s wife, Jolie, attempted to reach out to him, but the Irish star also made multiple threats on his opponent’s life. The trilogy bout ended after one round when McGregor stepped awkwardly after missing a punch and broke his left leg, which prompted speculation that a fourth bout could be in store down the road.

“We are going to fight again whether it’s in the Octagon or on the sidewa…

Dustin Poirier bypassed a recent opportunity to compete for lightweight gold to pursue a lucrative trilogy with Conor McGregor at UFC 264.

Poirier’s gamble on himself paid off, as he defeated McGregor via doctor stoppage when the Irishman suffered a broken leg at the end of the first round of their headlining lightweight bout at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Through it all, Poirier is happy with the route he took to get to this point, and he attributes much of his success to shutting out the noise from the outside world.

“It's the fruit of my labor. I’m happy with the position I’ve put myself in,” Poirier said. “I’ve been working so hard for so long. I’ve been dedicated my whole career, but definitely these last few years I feel like I’m coming into my own because I care less about all the noise around me surrounding fighting. Opinions, critics and MMA media can be a toxic place. I got off social media the last month because of that. I feel good.…

One Championship has added a prominent executive with significant ties to the sports world to its Board of Directors.

The Singapore-based promotion announced on Monday that David Levy, who notably had a 30-year tenure at Turner Broadcasting Inc., will serve as Lead Director and be “actively involved in the development and execution of One’s strategy to expand its live events, content platforms, and reach in the U.S. and other key international markets, including assisting in the company’s media rights expansion efforts.”

“David is an industry pioneer who helped redefine how millions of people enjoy sports and entertainment programming,” One CEO Chatri Sityodtong said in a release. “He is the perfect addition to our Board with his proven track record of working with the largest sports leagues in the world, putting together innovative rights packages that create value for broadcast partners, corporate sponsors, athletes, and fans, and deep understanding of how to deliver …

It isn’t easy to look good against Stephen Thompson.

While Gilbert Burns didn’t necessarily win any new fans with his performance against “Wonderboy” at UFC 264, he was able to do exactly what it took to earn a victory and remain relevant in the welterweight division.

“I’m very confident right now because I was able to beat a guy that a lot of guys lost to,” Burns said. “A lot of guys don’t want to fight him. Colby [Covington] doesn’t want to fight him, Leon Edwards doesn’t want to fight him. They offered it and I said let’s go. I was able to get a win. That puts me right back in the title picture. I have a little bit more work to do, but I’m right there.”

By grounding Thompson in every round, “Durinho” landed the most takedowns against the South Carolina-based karateka since Matt Brown secured five takedowns at UFC 145 in 2012. Burns put a lasting stamp on the victory when he maintained top position for the second half of Round 3 and ended the fight with a salvo of gr…

Onwards and upwards we go pic.twitter.com/qKgochlT3t

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) July 12, 2021

Conor McGregor expects to make a relatively swift recovery after undergoing surgery to repair a broken leg suffered in the UFC 264 headliner on Saturday night.

According to TMZ Sports, McGregor had a successful three-and-a-half hour procedure performed by Dr. Neal Ellatrache, the head team physician for the Los Angeles Dodger and the Los Angeles Rams, and trauma orthopedic surgeon Milton Little in Los Angeles where an intramedullary rod was inserted into his tibia and a small plate and screws were attached to the fibula.

McGregor suffered a broken leg when he stepped awkwardly after missing a punch against Dustin Poirier in their trilogy bout at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The bout was then waved off by a cageside doctor before the second round.

McGregor tweeted that he expects to be on crutches for six weeks after the proced…

While UFC 264 was garnering most of the attention in Las Vegas, Khabib Nurmagomedov was adding another award to his trophy case on the East Coast.

Nurmagomedov captured the ESPY for Best MMA Fighter during an award ceremony hosted by ESPN at The Rooftop at Pier 17 at the Seaport in New York City on Saturday. The event honors the best athletes, moments and events in sports over the course of the past year.

The former UFC lightweight champion was selected for the ESPY Award over Francis Ngannou, Amanda Nunes and Rose Namajunas.

“The Eagle” fought just once in 2020, submitting Justin Gaethje via triangle choke in the second round at UFC 254 this past October. Nurmagomedov then announced his retirement, ending an accomplished MMA career with a 29-0 career mark.

Before Conor McGregor rose to prominence, Ronda Rousey was arguably the UFC’s biggest crossover star.

After McGregor suffered a disappointing doctor stoppage loss to Dustin Poirier in the UFC 264 main event on Saturday night, the former two-division champion delivered some controversial post-fight comments that included more death threats to Poirier and lewd remarks toward his opponent’s wife, Jolie Poirier.

“There was no check,” McGregor said. “Not one of them was checked. Your wife is in my DMs. Hey baby, hit me back up on chat later on. We’ll be at the after party, the Wynn nightclub, baby … you little hoe. F*ck him.”

While McGregor’s lack of class in defeat drew criticism from throughout the MMA community, Rousey, for one, was not in that corner.

“I’m amazed that as soon as you hit the ground you were already promoting the next fight,” Rousey wrote on Twitter. “I [definitely] wouldn’t have had the mind to do that. The other fighters, [UFC] and media are lucky…

Conor McGregor’s fight-ending injury at UFC 264 may have been caused in part by a pre-existing injury.

According to SBG Ireland head trainer John Kavanagh, McGregor suffered an ankle injury during camp that could have played a role in the apparent break that ended his trilogy with Dustin Poirier after one round.

“A little bit of that ankle injury has been aggravated during camp,” Kavanagh said during an Instagram Q&A (transcription via MMAjunkie.com). “We got a scan on it. Did that have a small part to play in weakening it? I don’t know. We were (with a doctor) a couple weeks ago to get a scan on the ankle. … There might’ve been something in there. It would seem unusual that a young, healthy, fit man could wrap his foot around an elbow and without there being something (wrong) there before. You can play those guessing games all day long.”

Poirier, meanwhile, claimed in his post-fight interview that the injury occurred due to a checked kick earlier in the f…

Although Dustin Poirier might have been well on his way to a second victory over Conor McGregor regardless, the lasting memory of their trilogy bout at UFC 264 will be the leg injury that ended the Irish superstar’s night.

“The storyline is, oh, Conor broke his ankle instead of Dustin looked good,” UFC president Dana White said at the UFC 264 post-fight press conference.

“It sucks,” White said. “It’s brutal. It’s not the way you want to see fights end. Dustin Poirier will fight for the title, and when Conor is healed and ready to go, you do the rematch, I guess. I don’t know.”

Poirier defeated McGregor decisively in their rematch at UFC 257 and had referee Herb Dean taking a close look at the proceedings with his ground-and-pound barrage late in Round 1 on Saturday, but the nature of the ending makes White believe a fourth bout is necessary.

“The fight didn’t get finished,” he said. “You can’t have a fight finish that way, so we’ll see how this whole thing plays…

Khabib Nurmagomedov has spent time in the Octagon with both of the main components of the UFC 264 headliner, but the former lightweight champion had a clear rooting interest on Saturday night.

The trilogy bout between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor ended abruptly when the Irish star suffered an injury while throwing a punch in the waning seconds of Round 1. With McGregor’s leg twisted at an awkward angle, the fight was waved off before the second round, giving Poirier an anticlimactic technical knockout victory. To add insult to injury, McGregor had to be taken from the Octagon on a stretcher.

“Good always defeats evil,” Nurmagomedov wrote on Twitter. “Very happy for [Dustin Poirier]. I hope you will get your belt [by the] end of the year.”

Nurmagomedov and McGregor have never been the best of friends. The Dagestani thought that the SBG Ireland representative crossed the line with his trash talk leading up to their UFC 229 bout, and after Nurmagomedov submit…