Martial Arts News

WE ARE BACK!!!!!!#UFC261 April 24th. Jacksonville, FL. FULL CROWD. pic.twitter.com/5dy7wb4OWE

— danawhite (@danawhite) March 16, 2021

For the first time in more than a year, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will hold an event in front of a capacity crowd.

UFC president Dana White announced Monday that UFC 261 will take place at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla., on April 24. The 15,000-seat venue is where the UFC initially went to hold a trio of events in May 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down operations for approximately two months.

The card will be headlined by a welterweight championship rematch between Kamaru Usman and Jorge Masvidal. Two previously reported title bouts will also be featured, as Valentina Shevchenko faces Jessica Andrade for the women’s flyweight crown, while Weili Zhang defends the strawweight strap against Rose Namajunas. The main card will air on pay-per-view via ESPN+.

“I have bee…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6plinJXPK4&w=560&h=315]

Chan Sung Jung was so desperate to find a fight recently that he contemplated moving up a weight class.

In a video update recently posted to his YouTube channel, “The Korean Zombie” shared some of the difficulties he has had in trying to find an appropriate matchup in the UFC’s featherweight division. Jung hasn’t competed since dropping a five-round decision to Brian Ortega in the UFC Fight Night 180 headliner last October.

“All of the fighters that the UFC has given me to fight are now fighting each other. I’m just kind of stuck in a pickle,” Jung said (translation provided by Jung’s YouTube channel). “The UFC gave me a list of fighters to fight and [matchmaker] Sean Shelby believed that they’d return to the ring in time for me to fight. Even though I was down to fight, our schedules did not match and it didn’t work out. Everyone in the Top 10 are scheduled to fight one another, leaving me with no one.<…

A featherweight showdown between Hakeem Dawodu and Movsar Evloev is on tap for UFC 263.

MMA DNA was first to report the booking. UFC 263 takes place at a currently undisclosed location and features a flyweight championship rematch between Deiveson Figueiredo and Brandon Moreno.

The 29-year-old Dawodu has been on a roll, winning his last five appearances within the Las Vegas based promotion. Four of those victories have gone the distance, including a split verdict over Zubaira Tukhugov in his most recent outing at UFC 253 last September.

A former M-1 Global champion, Evloev has run his professional mark to 14-0 with triumphs in his first four UFC bouts. That resume notably includes a decision over English prospect Mike Grundy at UFC on ESPN 14 and a split-decision victory against the now-retired Nik Lentz at UFC 257.

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

Julian Erosa will lock horn with Seng Woo Choi in a featherweight scrap at UFC Fight Night on June 19.

Both fighters confirmed the pairing on social media following an initial report from John Hyon Ko on Twitter. The event does not have a confirmed headliner or location but is also expected to feature a welterweight showdown pitting Matt Brown against Dhiego Lima.

Erosa is currently on a three-bout winning streak that includes a pair of finishes in UFC competition. “The Ultimate Fighter 22” cast member has enjoyed three separate stints in the Las Vegas-based promotion while compiling a 3-4 mark in the Octagon. His latest stretch is highlighted by a third-round submission of Sean Woodson at UFC on ESPN 12 and a 56-second TKO of Nate Landwehr at UFC Fight Night 185.

South Korea’s Choi began his promotional tenure with a pair of losses…

After 11 months of suffering due to an acute pain in the pubis (pelvic) area without having an accurate diagnosis from four different doctors in the United States, Rafael dos Anjos decided to come to Brazil to consult Dr. Rickson Moraes. 

An othropedic shoulder specialist who treats UFC fighters such as Jose Aldo and Ronaldo Souza, Moraes conducted a series of exams with colleagues Reinaldo Fernandes and Lourenco Peixoto, both of whom are hip specialists. In a interview with Brazilian Youtube channel OSS conducted by journalist Mario Filho, Dr. Moraes explained why dos Anjos elected to have surgery.

"RDA was feeling that acute pain for last 11 months. But the scenario got worse five months ago, three months before the fight with [Paul] Felder, when he was running stairs. He was able to fight but the pain worsened, and after a series of exams in U.S., he came to me in Brazil and I referred him to these two specialists who work with me,” Moraes said.

Aft…

Gavin Tucker entered UFC Fight Night 187 with some solid momentum, having won four of his first five promotional appearances.

He left the Octagon on Saturday in stunned disappointment after a 22-second knockout loss to Dan Ige at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. It was the sixth-fastest KO in the history of the UFC’s featherweight division. Tucker, who was a short-notice replacement for Ryan Hall, relased a statement regarding the setback on his Instagram account.

“I don’t know much, but I know for sure we don’t get what we don’t go after. I went after it. But I lunged after it,..and in a straight line. Small mistakes, big consequences,” Tucker wrote.

“Saturday night I walked onto a well-timed right hand and experienced my first KO loss. I’m not gonna hide from it or downplay it. I’m heartbroken. But I can’t change what happened. I can only control how I move forward. Regretfully I didn’t get to show the work or represent the efforts and strides made from this great …

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Leon Edwards first bout since June 2019 did not go as planned.

After a solid opening stanza against Belal Muhammad, Edwards inadvertantly poked his opponent in the eye, ending the UFC Fight Night 187 main event 18 seconds into Round 2. Due to the foul, the fight was ruled a no contest.

Former interim welterweight champion Colby Covington believes Edwards was fortunate to avoid a having a loss added to his ledger, and as far as “Chaos” is concerned, the English fighter still hasn’t broken his lengthy streak of inactivity after that performance.

“He still hasn’t fought in two years. He has a no contest which, by the way, that should have been a disqualification,” Covington told Submission Radio. “He did poke the guy in the face in the first round and backstage I know that Herb Dean gave him the warning, ‘Hey, don’t poke anyone in the eyes,’ because that’s the instruction they give every time before …

At UFC Fight Night 187, Dan Ige demonstrated in emphatic fashion that he possesses staying power in the promotion’s featherweight division.

One bout removed from a five-round decision loss to Calvin Kattar and booked against a dangerous short-notice opponent in Gavin Tucker, Ige authored the sixth-fastest knockout in the history of the division. The former Dana White’s Contender Series competitor needed just one punch to do the job, as he blasted Tucker with a right hand 22 seconds into their featured encounter at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night. The finish ended Tucker’s three-bout winning streak.

“I was expecting a war, Gavin is a tough kid,” Ige said. “I’m pretty sure the line on this fight was pretty even and could’ve just as easily been me there on the canvas, but we trained hard, I saw everything in there and landed the first shot. The rest is history.”

According to Ige, the key to his success was attention to detail during his camp at Xtreme C…

There was some gamesmanship involved with Ryan Spann’s decision to walk out to J.Cole’s “Middle Child” ahead of his UFC Fight Night 187 co-main event bout against Misha Cirkunov.

“Tonight I walked out to ‘Middle Child’ and the significance behind that song is the fact that there is three light heavyweights in [Fortis MMA] right now: Kennedy Nzechukwu, myself and Alonzo Menifield,” Spann said.

“Kennedy just fought last week [at UFC 259], I just fought this week. Shout out to Kennedy! I had to beat his time. I couldn’t let him go out there and knock somebody out faster than I could, so now Zo, it’s on you. Zo is in the week after the next and I’m the middle one. That’s why I walked out to ‘Middle Child’, because I have these guys on my back.”

Indeed Spann’s 71-second finish of Cirkunov arrived quicker than Nzechukwu’s second-round knockout of Carlos Ulberg the previous weekend, and more importantly, it allowed him to rebound from his own first-round KO loss to Joh…

It appears that Belal Muhammad will be fine after an eye poke prematurely ended his night against Leon Edwards, but the harsh feelings toward his opponent may have only just begun.

Muhammad was unable to continue just 18 seconds into Round 2 of the Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 187 headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, when Edwards’ inadvertent foul left him visibly distressed and in considerable pain. Though the scene initially seemed to be dire, “Remember the Name” later provided an update of a more positive nature.

“My heart is shattered my first main event ended like that, but God’s the best of planners,” he wrote. “I’m sorry to the fans and the [UFC], you deserved a full fight .. Alhamdillah the vision is coming back and no permanent damage to the eye. I’ll be back and want to run it back.”

My heart is shattered my first main event ended like that but Gods the best of planners im sorry to the fans and the @ufc you deserved a full fight..…

Not the first or last time @Nasrat_mma will be confused for @KelvinGastelum #UFCVegas21 pic.twitter.com/I2rHGTIHwM

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 13, 2021

Nasrat Haqparast has been tabbed by many in the mixed martial arts community as a prospect to watch at 155 pounds in the coming years.

The 25-year-old Afghanistan native added to his resume on Saturday night with a unanimous decision triumph over the previously-unbeaten Rafa Garcia in a preliminary affair at UFC Fight Night 187, giving him five victories in seven outings with the Las Vegas-based promotion. Garcia was a replacement opponent for Don Madge, who was forced out of the fight due to visa issues.

“My team, we are always like this. When we get the name, it doesn’t matter his record, doesn’t matter his experience, we always take him very seriously,” Haqparast said. “He had nothing to lose. He had five days’ notice, six days’ notice, stepped in … It was a good experience also for me …

Leon Edwards’ first bout since June 2019 had an anticlimactic ending.

The British welterweight contender showed no signs of ring rust in the early stages of the UFC Fight Night 187 headliner against Belal Muhammad, as his striking looked crisp and he rattled his opponent with a head kick in the opening stanza. However, the action screeched to a halt when Edwards inadvertently poked Muhammad in the eye 18 seconds into Round 2. When Muhammad confirmed he could not continue, the fight was waved off and declared a no contest.

Edwards was understandly disappointed with the result.

“First, I want to apologize to Belal Muhammad. A long, long year for me and I prepped so hard. I wish him well, I wish him a full recovery,” Edwards said on the UFC on ESPN+ post-fight show. “Going into it, I said I didn’t believe in ring rust…I showed it tonight.

“I was just getting into the flow of it. To have that freak accident happen, I’m heartbroken. It’s been a long year and h…