Martial Arts News

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Absolute Championship Akhmat President Alexey Yatsenko has set the dates for the first two events of his promotion in the new year.

ACA 117 will take place on Feb. 12 and ACA 118 will take place on Feb. 26. Despite facing heavy sanctions from the United States Department of the Treasury, ACA is picking up the pace: nine events are planned for the first half of 2021 alone — ACA held 13 events during the entirety of 2020.

In December, U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) placed sanctions on Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadryov “for serious human rights abuses,” including kidnapping, torture and killing of those in the LGBTI community as well as journalists and political activists. As a result, ACA, which is owned by Kadryov, is blocked from doing business with anyone in the United States. “OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. person or within (or t…

It appears that “Mystic Mac” has returned ahead of his headlining matchup with Dustin Poirier at UFC 257.

During a clip on the UFC 257 “Countdown” show, Conor McGregor predicts that he’ll make short work of Poirier when they square off at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on Jan. 23.

“I like Dustin. I think he’s a good fighter,” McGregor said. “He’s even a great fighter. But great is still levels below me. I’ll knock Dustin out inside 60 seconds.”

Earlier in his UFC career, McGregor made a habit of predicting the demise of his opponents -- and was often surprisingly accurate. If this forecast proves true, it will be the second time McGregor has finished Poirier inside of a round: The SBG Ireland representative earned a technical knockout win 1:46 into Round 1 against “The Diamond” when they met at featherweight at UFC 178 in September 2014.

McGregor’s most recent Octagon appearance was abbreviated, as well. He stopped Donald Cerrone in just 40 seconds following…

The time for Dana White’s long-awaited meeting with Khabib Nurmagomedov is fast approaching, and the UFC president remains resolute that the lightweight champion will step into the Octagon one last time.

"I'm obviously meeting with him because I think that he should fight again," White told ESPN. "Look at what he did to Justin Gaethje [in October]. Look at what he's done to every opponent he has faced. ... I think he should fight again and I'm going to press him as hard as I can for one more."

Nurmagomedov announced his retirement in the cage following his victory over Gaethje at UFC 254, citing a promise he made to his mother before the bout. The Dagestani star endured a difficult 2020 that saw him lose his father and coach, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, to complications related to COVID-19. The UFC has not vacated Nurmagomedov’s lightweight title, but “The Eagle” recently said that he expects the winner of the Conor McGregor-Dustin Poirier headliner at UFC 257 to be cr…

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.@UFC will host three events in just seven days, which will welcome a limited number of fans at Etihad Arena.

More information :https://t.co/KmrSbXmjF1

— UFC News (@UFCNews) January 8, 2021 For the first time since early 2020, fans will be allowed to attend Ultimate Fighting Championship events in a limited capacity.

The UFC will return to Abu Dhabi for three fight cards on Jan. 16, Jan. 20 and Jan. 23, and Etihad Arena, which has a normal capacity of 18,000 people, is expected to host approximately 2,000 spectators per event. With that in mind, the venue has revealed a list of enhanced protocols to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

All those attending must adhere to the guidelines or they will not be granted entry to the events. Those safety measures, which can be viewed on the venue’s website, are as follows:

1. Upon arriving to the venue entrance, all spectators will undergo a check of their valid 48-hour PCR test, ther…

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

If all goes as planned, Tatiana Suarez will resume her pursuit of a UFC title sometime this summer.

The strawweight contender recently confirmed the targeted timeframe to MMAjunkie.com. Suarez hasn’t competed since defeating Nina Ansaroff via unanimous decision at UFC 238 on June 8, 2019. A neck injury has sidelined “The Ultimate Fighter 23” winner since then.

“Yes, my team and I are thinking summer,” Suarez said. “At first I thought spring, but I want to make sure my neck will make it through a camp before committing to a fight. I tried to spar and my neck hurt after a few rounds so I cut the session. But, slowly but surely I’m introducing live training back in.”

The 30-year-old Milennia MMA representative has kicked off her professional with eight triumphs, including notable triumphs over Ansaroff, Carla Esparza and Alexa Grasso in U…

Petr Yan’s camp will look a little different ahead of his bantamweight title defense at UFC 259.

Yan recently posted a photo of himself on Instagram at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, which indicates that “No Mercy” will training at the renowned gym before facing Aljamain Sterling on March 6.

“In general, everything is fine so far,” Yan wrote. “Acclimatization is taking place — sometimes we speed it up. Thanks to everyone who supports. There is a lot of work to do.”

MMAjunkie.com later confirmed that Yan chose to train at ATT because his customary camp at Tiger Muay Thai in Phuket, Thailand, would require a two-week quarantine period, which would mean a shorter camp.

Yan claimed the vacant 135-pound belt with a fifth-round TKO of Jose Aldo at UFC 251 on July 11. The 27-year-old Russian has won 10 consecutive fights — including seven in the Octagon.

UFC 259 is headlined by a light heavyweight championship clash between Jan Blachowicz a…

me and kelz are fine n well so we just wanna clear the air n let it be known that this is not about us! We love our...

Posted by Lezlye Rivera on Friday, January 8, 2021

The family of Irwin Rivera has come to his defense after the UFC bantamweight was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted murder in Florida.

Rivera was booked after allegedly stabbing his sisters and was charged with two counts of homicide. According to a police report, one sister was hospitalized with two collapsed lungs among other injuries, while the other suffered multiple stab wounds to her back, face, arms and hands. Rivera “said that he did so because it was his purpose, which he was told to by a higher power,” per the report.

On Friday, Rivera’s sister, Lezlye, issued a statement via Facebook in support of her brother while admitting that he wasn’t mentally stable at the time of the alleged attacks. Her full, unedited message is as follows:

me and kelz are fine …

Two previously scheduled bouts have been moved to UFC 258.

A bantamweight bout pitting Jimmie Rivera against Pedro Munhoz and a welterweight scrap between Dhiego Lima and Belal Muhammad will now take place on Feb. 13. MMAFighting.com first brought word of the Munhoz-Rivera rebooking, while Muhammed revealed the rescheduling of his fight against Rivera on his podcast. UFC 258 is expected to feature a welterweight championship bout between Kamaru Usman and Gilbert Burns.

Munhoz-Rivera was initially targeted for a now-canceled UFC Fight Night event on Jan. 30 before being relocated to UFC on ESPN 20 on Jan. 20. It is currently unclear why the bantamweight fight has been removed from the Jan. 20 event. Muhammad and Lima were supposed to meet at UFC Fight Night 183 on Dec. 19 before Muhammed tested positive for COVID-19.

Rivera and Munhoz initially squared off more than five years ago at UFC Fight Night 77, with Rivera claiming a split-decision triumph. That was par…

UFC 257 has lost an intriguing featherweight bout, as Hakeem Dawodu has withdrawn from a proposed Jan. 23 matchup with Shane Burgos due to a shoulder injury.

MMAjunkie.com was first to report Dawodu’s exit, and MMAFighting.com reported that Burgos will not remain on the card against a replacement opponent. UFC 257 takes place on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi and is headlined by a lightweight tilt pitting Conor McGregor against Dustin Poirier.

Dawodu is currently on a five-bout winning streak within the Las Vegas-based promotion. Most recently, the 29-year-old muay Thai specialist earned a split-decision victory against Zubaira Tukhugov at UFC 253 on Sept. 26.

Burgos, meanwhile, had a three-fight winning streak snapped in a unanimous decision defeat to Josh Emmett at UFC on ESPN 11 on June 20.

The massive UFC 259 card just picked up two more intriguing matchups.

A bantamweight matchup between Yadong Song (16-4-1, 1 NC) and Kyler Phillips (8-1) has been added to the year’s first Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-view on American soil, as first reported by Bloody Canvas on Friday. Song fought most recently at UFC on ESPN 8 last May, winning a unanimous decision over fellow bantamweight Marlon Vera in a short-notice featherweight booking, and bringing his record in the UFC to 5-0-1. The 25-year-old Phillips is 2-0 in the UFC since making his Octagon debut last year, having defeated Gabriel Silva by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 169 on Feb. 29, and ground-and-pounded Cameron Else for a second-round TKO at UFC on ESPN 16 on Oct. 3.

Strawweight up-and-comers Livinha Souza (14-2) and Amanda Lemos (8-1-1) are also set to square off at UFC 259, with both women looking to keep their positive momentum going in the new year. Combate was the first to …

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Last month, Brandon Moreno came agonizingly close to winning a UFC title, and fans of his former promotion took notice of his work.

“The Assassin Baby,” who fought to a five-round draw with Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 256, was named the “Alum of the Year” in the 2020 Legacy Fighting Alliance Fans’ Choice Awards. Moreno, who initially joined the UFC through Season 24 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” was released by the promotion in 2018 after back-to-back losses. He bounced back by knocking out Maikel Perez at LFA 69 to win the promotion’s flyweight title, prompting the UFC to re-sign him and leading to a stellar 2020 for the 27-year-old Mexican.

Perhaps unsurprisingly for one of the sport’s premier developmental organizations, Moreno was not the only honoree to end 2020 as a member of the UFC. Crystal Vanessa Demopoulos, who appeared in both Dana White's Con…