Martial Arts News

Heavyweights will be on the menu for Bellator MMA’s July 16 event.

Per a promotion official on Thursday, Ronny Markes (19-8) will make his return to the Bellator cage on July 16 against Said Sowma (6-2). The two big men will toe the line at Bellator 262, which will be held inside the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. Both will be looking to rebound off of unsuccessful organizational debuts in late 2020.

Markes, at one time a middleweight when competing with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, has moved up to heavyweight over the years after missing weight badly in both the middleweight and light heavyweight categories. The well-traveled Brazilian vet competed several times under the Professional Fighters League banner the last few years, but he never won his way into the playoffs in any year. His Bellator debut saw him fall short to Linton Vassell in December, losing by knockout in the second frame.

Like Markes, Sowma will be aiming to get back in the win column …

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOyR93Cc-1c&w=560&h=315] Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the PFL live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. After some days of mystery, Fabricio Werdum went public with his decision to withdraw from the 2021 Professional Fighters League season. Werdum met Renan Ferreira at PFL 3: 2021 Regular Season, and the heavyweights went to battle for just over half a round. When the fight hit the ground, Werdum slapped on a triangle choke and appeared to elicit a tap, but referee Keith Peterson was not in position to observe it so Ferreira kept fighting and knocked Werdum out.

The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board later overturned the result to a no contest, but the strikes to Werdum did some lasting damage. In an interview with Sherdog, the all-time great revealed that his neurologist, Dr. Wuilker Knoner Campos, did not allow him to return after a series of tests.

“As …

Former featherweight title challenger Daniel Weichel will square off against Keoni Diggs at Bellator 261.

Promotion officials confirmed the pairing on Wednesday following an initial report from Fansided. Bellator 261 takes place on June 25 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., and is headlined by an interim heavyweight title clash between Timothy Johnson and Valentin Moldavsky. A limited number of fans will be allowed to attend the event.

Weichel has lost three of his last four Bellator outings. In his last appearance, the German featherweight dropped a five-round verdict against Emmanuel Sanchez in the quarterfinals of the 145-pound grand prix at Bellator 252. “Drake” bested Saul Rogers in the opening round of the bracket.

Diggs has kicked off his professional career with nine straight triumphs, including back-to-back submissions of Derek Campos and Scotty Hao under the Bellator banner. The 34-year-old MMA Lab representative has finished seven of his …

A lightweight clash pitting Clay Guida against Mark O. Madsen is in the works for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on Aug. 21.

Danish outlet ViaRitzau was first to report the booking, and MMAFighting.com later confirmed that verbal agreements are in place for the bout. The UFC Fight Night card is expected to be headlined by a middleweight duel between Paulo Costa and Jared Cannonier but does not have an official location.

The 39-year-old Guida has 56 professional fights under his belt. In his last outing, “The Carpenter” snapped a two-bout losing streak at UFC Fight Night 184, where he outpointed Michael Johnson on Feb. 6.

An Olympic silver medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling, Madsen has began his professional MMA tenure with 10 straight victories. The Danish lightweight debuted in the Octagon with a first-round TKO of Danilo Belluardo before outpointing Austin Hubbard at UFC 248.

Georges St. Pierre recently had an opportunity to return to the combat sports world, but it was apparently nixed by UFC president Dana White.

The former UFC two-division champion confirmed in an interview with Cinema Blend that he was in talks for a boxing match against former world champion Oscar De La Hoya under the Triller banner. Unfortunately, St. Pierre remains under contract with the UFC, which kept him from seriously pursuing that option.

Rumors of the bout initially came to light when Triller CEO Ryan Kavanagh called out White, offering a $250,000 donation to the charity of the UFC president’s choice if he allowed St. Pierre to fight. While St. Pierre is no longer interested in resuming his MMA career, he was intrigued by the possibility of a boxing match with De La Hoya.

“I understand that Dana didn’t want me to fight,” St. Pierre said. “However, it would have been fun. Because my career as a professional fighter, to become the best in the world in mi…

Professional Fighters League has unveiled the card for its final regular season event for welterweights and light heavyweights.

The promotion announced on Wednesday that PFL 5 on June 17 will be headlined by a 170-pound clash between Rory MacDonald and Gleison Tibau, while defending welterweight champ Ray Cooper III will square off against Nikolai Aleksakhin in the co-main event. Returning 205-pound king Emiliano Sordi will meet Dan Spohn in another main card matchup, while Cezar Mutante will lock horns with Chris Camozzi to round out the main draw, which is televised on ESPN2.

The preliminary card, which airs on ESPN2, is as follows: Antonio Carlos Jr. vs. Vinny Magalhaes at light heavyweight; Marthin Hamlet vs. Cory Hendricks at light heavyweight; Joao Zeferino vs. Jason Ponet at welterweight; Magomed Magomedkerimov vs. Curtis Millender at welterweight; Tom Lawlor vs. Jordan Young at light heavyweight and Sadibou Sy vs. Alexey Kunchenko at welterweight.

“There…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFsPGSIG354&w=560&h=315]

After the 6-foot-8 Renan Ferreira's impressive but controversial debut in Professional Fighters League, another Brazilian giant will get a chance to showcase his talents on a larger stage.

Edivan Santos, who stands 6-foot-7 and has compiled a record of 12-2-2 on the Brazilian regional scene, will face Russian Rizvan Kuniev on the upcoming season of Dana White’s Contender Series on Sept. 28.

Born in Maranhão, Brazill, Santos has lived in Curitiba since 2018. Santos trains muay Thai with Chute Boxe black belts Nadim Andraus and Roberto Piccinini and boxing with Vitoriano Martinez, who is the father of Vale Tudo legend Jose Landi-Johns. He is also a jiu-jitsu purple belt and according to master Picinini “has a uncommon speed and agility for a heavyweight.”

Andraus told Sherdog.com that Santos had a bout scheduled against Kirill Kornilov at Open Fighting Championship 5 in Russia on June 12, but after s…

Fans are coming back to Bellator MMA events.

The promotion announced Wednesday that fans will be allowed to attend Bellator 260 on June 11 and Bellator 261 on June 25. Both events take place at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. “A limited number of tickets” will be available for both cards on Friday, according to a release.

The organization’s last event in front of an audience was Bellator 240, which took place on Feb. 22, 2020 at 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland. After Friday’s Bellator 259, the California-based promotion will have held 16 events without spectators in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bellator 260 is headlined by a welterweight championship clash between Douglas Lima and Yaroslav Amosov, while an interim heavyweight title tilt pitting Timothy Johnson against Valentin Moldavsky will top the Bellator 261 bill. Both cards will be televised on Showtime.

In conjunction with the return of fans, Bellator announced a partnership with spo…

Credit: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com Credit: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com Credit: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com Credit: Dave Mandel/Sherdog.com

Tatiana Suarez is nearing her Octagon return after neck issues have sidelined her since June 2019.

The former UFC strawweight contender told ESPN that she has been medically cleared and is targeting a 125-pound debut for her next promotional appearance. A bulging disc in her neck has plagued the former Olympic hopeful after a victory over Nina Ansaroff at UFC 238.

Suarez’s return might have arrived sooner, as she was cleared for training in February but she suffered a broken right hand in wrestling practice and a concussion in a separate instance while wrestling with her boyfriend. She plans on beginning her training camp “soon,” with September as a possibility for her next fight.

"I'm super excited to get back out there," she said. "It's fun to practice, for sure. But it's just different competing. Everybody knows that. It's super exci…

A bantamweight clash pitting former champion T.J. Dillashaw against Cory Sandhagen has been rescheduled for an UFC event on July 24.

MMAjunkie.com was first to report the booking. Dillashaw and Sandhagen were originally slated to headline UFC on ESPN 24 on May 8 before Dillashaw suffered a cut in training and the bout had to be postponed.

Dillashaw vs. Sandhagen will serve as the main event for the July 24 card, which does not yet have an official location.

Dillashaw has been sidelined since January 2019 after serving a two-year USADA suspension for a positive EPO test. The former bantamweight champion last appeared at UFC Fight Night 143, where his bid to capture flyweight gold was derailed in a 32-second TKO loss to Henry Cejudo.

Sandhagen has emerged as one of the division’s top contenders with victories in seven of his first eight Octagon appearances. The Elevation Fight Team representative has authored spectacular knockouts in his last two outings ag…

Derrick Lewis is not the person whose car you want to attempt to steal.

A Houston area man learned that lesson the hard way, as the UFC heavyweight posted a video on his Instagram account of the alleged thief being arrested by local police. “Mofo pick right/wrong car to break into,” Lewis wrote. “HE’S OK.”

In addition to sharing photo and video of the suspect and police on the scene, Lewis showed the damage done to his vehicle, and revealed bruises on his knuckles in an Instagram story.

Houston Police Department public information officer Jodi Silva confirmed to MMAFighting.com that Lewis apprehended the suspect when he returned from a workout and heard banging noises on the driver’s side of the vehicle.

“Mr. Lewis says he went over to the suspect, struck him, placed him onto the ground until the police arrived,” Silva said. “That’s the nicest way to put it.”

The suspect was then taken to the hospital and then booked on a charge of criminal mischi…

HE BROKE HIS ARM @AndreMunizUFC submits Jacare Souza in Round 1!! #UFC262 pic.twitter.com/dH6tn41xhZ

— UFC Canada (@UFC_CA) May 16, 2021

Ronaldo Souza underwent surgery on Monday to repair the broken humerus he suffered against Andre Muniz at UFC 262.

According to his Brazilian doctor Rickson Moraes, who followed the process from Rio de Janeiro, the procedure was a success and “Jacare” will be ready to return in six months.

“I just did a video call with him and saw the X-ray. The surgery was excellent. They placed two plates to fix the bones. The team that did the surgery will evaluate, but normally that type of fracture takes around six months for a complete recovery,” Moraes told Sherdog.com.

Moraes also compared “Jacare’s” surgery to the procedure underwent by Chris Weidman, who suffered a broken leg at UFC 261 last month.

“Both Weidman and Ronaldo have a fracture in the diaphysis of the bone (tibia and humerus). Both cases…