Martial Arts News

The UFC 260 card will not look anything like it was originally intended to look, but that’s normal in this day and age.

The promotion recently confirmed multiple updates to Saturday’s card, which will take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Two scheduled women’s strawweight bouts – Hannah Goldy vs. Jessica Penne and Randa Markos vs. Luana Pinheiro – have been moved to different events as a result of COVID-19 protocols. Goldy vs. Penne is now set for UFC on ESPN 22 on April 17, while Markos vs. Pinheiro will go down at UFC Fight Night “Reyes vs. Prochazka” on May 1.

Meanwhile, William Knight has been pulled from a proposed light heavyweight matchup against Alonzo Menifield and will instead face Da Un Jung at UFC on ABC 2 on April 10. Knight is a replacement for Shamil Gamzatov, who couldn’t fight Jung due to visa issues. Menifield will remain on the UFC 260 lineup and lock horns with Dana White’s Contender Series alum Fabio Cherant.

UFC 260 is headlined by a hea…

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While things are beginning to fall into place for most of the top-ranked competitors throughout the UFC’s lightweight division, Justin Gaethje remains in limbo.

With Khabib Nurmagomedov’s retirement finally official, the promotion announced that Charles Oliveira would face Michael Chandler for the vacant 155-pound belt at UFC 262 in May. Meanwhile, a trilogy between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor appears imminent, and Beneil Dariush will lock horns with Tony Ferguson on the UFC 262 undercard.

At the moment, Gaethje doesn’t seem to have a clear direction in the weight class.

“Who knows, man,” Gaethje told Full Reptile. “I can’t talk about it a lot right now—I’m sure me talking about it [in the past] is the reason I’m here. Who knows? Maybe I pissed someone off. I don’t know.

“All I know is since I was 12, 13 years old, I listened to Dana White do interviews and explain what he wanted in a f…

Impressive bantamweight contender Magomed Magomedov will square off against C.J. Hamilton on the Bellator 255 undercard.

Sherdog.com confirmed the booking with a promotion official following an initial report from Cageside Press. Hamilton replaces Jared Scoggins, who was forced to withdraw from the fight. Two other bouts were confirmed for the Bellator 255 prelims: Mukhamad Berkhamov vs. Herman Terrado at welterweight and Fabio Aguiar vs. Khalid Murtazaliev at middleweight.

Bellator 255 takes place at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., on April 2 and is headlined by a featherweight grand prix semifinal between reigning champion Patricio Freire and Emmanuel Sanchez. The card will air on Showtime.

A former Absolute Championship Berkut title holder, Magomedov made his promotional debut on Dec. 10, when he scored a dominant three-round verdict against Matheus Mattos at Bellator 254 to run his career mark to 17-1. Magomedov also notably owns a victory over former UF…

Impressive bantamweight contender Magomed Magomedov will square off against C.J. Hamilton on the Bellator 255 undercard.

Sherdog.com confirmed the booking with a promotion official following an initial report from Cageside Press. Hamilton replaces Jared Scoggins, who was forced to withdraw from the fight. Two other bouts were confirmed for the Bellator 255 prelims: Mukhamad Berkhamov vs. Herman Terrado at welterweight and Fabio Aguiar vs. Khalid Murtazaliev at middleweight.

Bellator 255 takes place at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., on April 2 and is headlined by a featherweight grand prix semifinal between reigning champion Patricio Freire and Emmanuel Sanchez. The card will air on Showtime.

A former Absolute Championship Berkut title holder, Magomedov made his promotional debut on Dec. 10, when he scored a dominant three-round verdict against Matheus Mattos at Bellator 254 to run his career mark to 17-1. Magomedov also notably owns a victory over former UF…

If Frank Mir is going to showcase his skills in the Sweet Science on April 17, it won’t be against Antonio Tarver.

The Georgia Athletic Commission denied Tarver a license to fight Mir on the undercard of the Triller Promotions event that is headlined by a boxing match between former Bellator champion Ben Askren and social media personality Jake Paul. ESPN was first to report the news.

According to commission executive director Steve Woodruff, Tarver was denied a license because state bylaws dictate that anyone 50 or older must have 10 professional fights on their record with in the last 10 years, "including at least four professional matches or contests of boxing in the immediately preceding four years.” The 52-year-old Tarver has fought just five times in 10 years and not at all in the past six. Tarver won multiple champions at light heavyweight over the course of his career while compiling a 31-6-1 record.

Triller has proposed former IBF cruiserweight champio…

Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 21 main card attracted an audience of 721,000 viewers to ESPN, according to ShowBuzz Daily.

That’s the top figure for a UFC on ESPN card in 20201, surpassing both UFC on ESPN 20 (244,000 viewers) and UFC on ESPN 19 (658,000 viewers). The event didn’t begin on ESPN until 10:25 p.m. ET due to the NCAA wrestling championships. As a result, the main card began on ESPN2 at 10 p.m. ET and averaged 512,000 viewers for the first portion.

UFC on ESPN 21 took place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and saw Derek Brunson defeat Kevin Holland via unanimous decision in the evening’s middleweight main event. The overall main draw wasn’t large on star power and also had the disadvantage of going head-to-head with the NCAA basketball tournament on Saturday night, which dominated ratings with games on multiple networks.

The UFC on ESPN 21 prelims averaged 438,000 viewers on ESPN2. That portion of the card featured a women’s bantamweight matchup between Macy C…

A matchup of former flyweight title challengers is in the works for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on July 10.

According to MMAFighting.com, Jennifer Maia will square off against Jessica Eye at the UFC Fight Night card, which does not have an official headliner or location.

Maia last appeared at UFC 255, where she dropped a five-round verdict to Valentina Shevchenko in a 125-pound title bout on Nov. 21. The former Invicta FC title holder is 3-3 in UFC competition, with victories over Joanne Calderwood, Roxanne Modafferi and Alexis Davis to her credit.

Eye, who was knocked out by a Shevchenko head kick at UFC 238, has lost three of her last four Octagon appearances overall. Most recently, the Ohio native suffered a unanimous decision defeat to Joanne Calderwood at UFC 257 on Jan. 23.

Henry Corrales will square off with Keith Lee, the younger brother of UFC talent Kevin Lee, on the Bellator 258 undercard.

Promotion officials confirmed the pairing to Sherdog.com on Tuesday, along with two other bouts set for the preliminary draw: Johnny Eblen vs. Daniel Madrid at middleweight and Weber Almeida vs. Johnny Soto at featherweight.

Bellator 258 takes place on May 7 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., and is headlined by a bantamweight title tilt between Juan Archuleta and Sergio Pettis. The card will air on Showtime.

Corrales snapped a two-bout skid with a split-decision triumph over Brandon Girtz at Bellator 250 this past October. The former King of the Cage champion is 6-5 during his tenure with the California-based organization.

After besting Shawn Bunch and Vinicius Zani in his first two promotional appearances, Lee dropped a unanimous verdict against Raufeon Stots at Bellator 253 on Nov. 19. The 24-year-old Extreme Couture repres…

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An amateur mixed martial arts event got out of control in Florida this past Saturday.

TMZ Sports obtained video of the scene, which included mutliple fights outside the cage at “RIZE Fighting Championship: Battle of Warriors” at the Bamboo Room in Lake Worth, Fla. As the melee continued, footage showed a man reaching into a woman's purse, pulling out a handgun and firing it into the air at least once. Based on the video, there appear to be fans in the balcony area just above where the man fires the gun.

“Who knows what his thoughts were, if it was to diffuse the situation, but you can’t do that in the United States, especially at an event packed with fans, with people, you can’t shoot guns in the air,” Rize promoter Armando Gonzalez told NBC Miami.

According to the NBC Miami report, the fighting outside the cage initially began because people didn’t like the officiating in one particular bout. Read more

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Tsuyoshi Sudario turned heads with quick knockout of Kazushi Miyamoto in their heavyweight bout at Rizin 27, but it’s what happened after the stoppage that has come back to haunt the sumo wrestler.

The Japanese promotion released a statement Tuesday announcing that Sudario has been fined for continuing to throw punches at his opponent after referee Ryogaku Wada attempted to restrain him. Tensions flared after the incident as both corners entered the ring. As a result, Sudario has been fined 25 percent of his purse.

“The incident occurred after Sudario finished Miyamoto with a promotional record-breaking knockout,” the statement read. “Referee Ryogaku Wada waved off the fight in [eight] seconds after Sudario landed a clean right hand to Miyamoto’s jaw. Sudario refused to stop attacking after the official stoppage. Sudario’s corner, Enson Inoue entered the ring and helped restrain Sudario, whereupon Miyamo…

Coming off an impressive sequence of eight straight wins, Charles Oliveira was recently confirmed to face ex-Bellator champion Michael Chandler for the vacant lightweight crown at UFC 262 on May 15.

Shortly thereafter, Oliveira revealed to Sherdog.com the curious manner in which he received the most important news of his fighting career. After Khabib Nurmagomedov confirmed his retirement and rumors of a lightweight title bout between Justin Gaethje and Chandler became prevalent, Oliveira decided to spend some time relaxing on his ranch.

"When some fan asked me what I thought about that fight, I answered it would be a great fight between two killers. I wanted to fight for the belt, so once I didn’t have that fight confirmed I decided to go on Thursday night to my ranch, where the telephone just doesn't work. But my father had to go to the city to buy some stuff and saw many calls from my trainer, Diego Lima, and told me about that.

“At that moment I knew Diego w…

After a dominant victory against Drew Dober at UFC 259, Islam Makhachev is one of the fastest-rising contenders in the lightweight division.

Makhachev, who has won seven consecutive fights within the Las Vegas-based promotion, has been tabbed by former 155-pound king Khabib Nurmagomedov as a future champion. The 29-year-old Dagestani called for a showdown with Tony Ferguson after UFC 259, but with “El Cucuy” now booked against Beneil Dariush, has turned his attention to other potential opponents.

One of those is Rafael dos Anjos, who Makhachev was supposed to face at UFC 254 in October and at UFC Fight Night 182 in November before the bout fell through. Dos Anjos recently said he would only face Makhachev if a victory granted him a rematch with Nurmagomedov, whose retirement was only officially recognized by the UFC this past week.

“I don’t know why his opinion changed so quickly,” Makhachev said in a video interview (translation via RT Sport). “He won a fight a…