Martial Arts News

They're opening up in the final minutes! #UFC259 pic.twitter.com/aFm08wLFvR

— UFC (@ufc) March 7, 2021

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 259 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app.

Dominick Cruz still has something left to offer.

The former Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight titleholder eked out a split decision over Casey Kenney in the featured UFC 259 prelim on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Judges Derek Cleary and Sal D’Amato scored it 29-28 and 30-27 for Cruz, while Michael Bell saw it 29-28 for Kenney.

Neither man was willing to budge. Cruz (23-3, 6-2 UFC) darted in and out with his patented unorthodox movements, piled up points with lunging punches to the head and occasionally zeroed in on the body. Kenney counteracted those efforts with repeated kicks to the legs and timely power punches upstairs. Both men were stricken by fatigue in the…

Marcin Tybura has a new date and opponent for his next Octagon appearance.

The Polish heavyweight, who was originally slated to meet Blagoy Ivanov at UFC 260, will now square off against Walt Harris at the promotion’s June 5 event. MMAFighting.com was first to report the new booking. The UFC Fight Night event does not yet have a headliner or location.

Tybura is currently on a four-bout winning streak in UFC competition. Most recently, the 35-year-old scored a second-round technical knockout victory against Greg Hardy at UFC Fight Night 183 on Dec. 19.

After a four-fight unbeaten stretch from June 2018 to July 2019, Harris has suffered back-to-back TKO defeats to Alistair Overeem and Alexander Volkov in the Octagon. “The Big Ticket” is 6-8 with one no contest over the course of two UFC stints.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h4sjfwwdMA&w=640&h=360] Israel Adesanya weighed in with a box of pizza in hand and still came in well below the light heavyweight limit for his title fight.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is kicking off March with its most stacked pay-per-view offering of 2021 so far. The event, which features three title fights, will be capped off by middleweight champion Israel Adesanya moving up a division to challenge the newly crowned light heavyweight titleholder Jan Blachowicz. The 15-fight UFC 259 card also features two additional title fights as Amanda Nunes will put her featherweight title on the line against Megan Anderson, while bantamweight champ Petr Yan will look to stop the surging Aljamain Sterling. None of the fighters in any of these bouts had any issue making weight.

Blachowicz (27-8) has been highly impressive since getting knocked out by Thiago Santos in 2019. Wins over Luke Rockhold, Ronaldo Souza and Corey Anderson l…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jdn_ln8uxw&w=560&h=315] Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. The brother of former Ultimate Fighting Championship title challenger Paulo Costa would like to add some details to the story about Costa drinking too much wine before his last fight. Scheduled to face Robert Whittaker on April 17 in Las Vegas, top-ranked middleweight Costa (13-1) brought a big story to MMA world last week. “Borrachinha” declared on his YouTube channel that he fought drunk against Israel Adesanya, in the main event of UFC 253 last September at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

On Wednesday, Costa’s older brother and head coach, Carlos Borracha, confirmed that information in an interview with Sherdog.

“He arrived in Abu Dhabi weighing 211 lbs., and because of that, we needed to train a lot in the [days before] the fight. Due to that, after the …

Kang Ji Won springs a MASSIVE upset, stopping Amir Aliakbari in Round 1! #ONEFistsOfFury2 #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/zje6KvjwkA

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) March 5, 2021 In a sharp contrast from the previous event, just one bout on the second, pre-recorded part of One Championship’s “Fists of Fury” series went to the judges.

The main event of One: Fists of Fury 2 saw Ji Won Kang (5-0) taking on decorated Iranian wrestler Amir Aliakbari (10-2) in their heavyweight tilt. The two behemoths took a few seconds to study one other early in the fight, with Aliakbari keeping the center of the cage while Kang was reaching out with a few kicks. After chasing the South Korean fighter for a while, Aliakbari finally reached “Mighty Warrior” with a right hand, followed by another heavy that forced his opponent to retreat. The face of the Kang immediately showed damage from the Iranian fighter’s strikes, as Kang’s left eye started…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7ROZZcIBDI?start=887&w=560&h=315] Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 259 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. If the Ultimate Fighting Championship has its way, fans will be back en masse at events in the very near future. At the UFC 259 pre-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White spoke to media about a myriad of topics including some upcoming events. Texas Governor Greg Abbott rescinded the mask mandate for COVID-19 on Monday, while opening up venues to 100-percent capacity. Effective March 10, all Texas businesses will be allowed to re-open to full capacity, and Abbott has stripped the local government from re-imposing a mask mandate. The businesses will be allowed to limit their own capacities based on their own internal policies.

This new development has the UFC head chomping at the bit to put on fight cards in front of large audiences again. White…

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Two Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweights looking for their first win inside the Octagon will clash in June. The news first came from MMA DNA, Josh Parisian (13-4) will try once more to win one in the UFC against fellow struggling heavyweight Roque Martinez (15-7-2) on June 19. This UFC Fight Night event does not yet have a location set, although it likely will take place either in the UFC Apex in Las Vegas or on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Parisian confirmed the news of this pairing on his Instagram.

Parisian, the first heavyweight to ever record a spinning back fist knockout in combined Zuffa history, did so on his first trip to Dana White's Contender Series in 2018. The stellar finish did not earn him a place on the roster, and instead a slot on Season 28 of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Unsuccessful in…

BREAKING NEWS

UFC debut for Nikolas Motta against Damir Hadzovic is set to take place on May 8th.#UFC #MMA #UFCESPN https://t.co/H25UgcWDas pic.twitter.com/PdywHhJfFz

— MMA DNA (@MMADNANL) March 4, 2021 Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. A promising Dana White's Contender Series signee has his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut set for May.

First reported by MMA DNA on Thursday, Nikolas Motta (12-3) will be squaring off against Damir Hadzovic (13-6) at lightweight on the May 8 UFC Fight Night card. The event, which is currently tabbed to take place in the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, does not yet have a headliner booked. The match was confirmed later by multiple outlets.

Motta prevailed on the ninth week of the 2020 season of DWCS, where he captured a decision over Joseph Lowry to earn a contract. The ex-Cage Fury Fighti…

We have a home for the 2021 PFL Regular Season! @TheOceanAC will host all 6 regular-season events in a bubble environment.

— PFL MMA (@ProFightLeague) March 4, 2021 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. The Professional Fighters League has its home for its upcoming tournament season. Via press release from the organization on Thursday, each of the six fight cards of the PFL regular season will be held at the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, N.J. The league has erected a “state-of-the-art” bubble environment, which will require fighters to check in 17 days before their bouts to quarantine. The PFL will be running heightened COVID-19 protocols in order to preserve all of the tournament matchups. It is unclear how the promotion will handle short-notice replacement fights in the event of a fighter's withdrawal, or if any competitor falls …

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is parting ways with longtime heavyweight standouts Alistair Overeem and Junior dos Santos.

MMAjunkie.com was first to report Overeem’s release, while dos Santos initially brought word of his departure via social media. Multiple outlets have since confirmed the cuts. According to a report from ESPN, Overeem had two bouts remaining on his UFC contract, while dos Santos had five.

Overeem recently competed at UFC Fight Night 184 on Feb. 6, when he had a two-bout winning streak snapped in a second-round technical knockout loss against Alexander Volkov. A former Strikeforce, K-1 and Dream champion, Overeem made his Octagon debut with a first-round stoppage of Brock Lesnar at UFC 141 and proceeded to compile a 12-8 mark within the Las Vegas-based promotion. “The Demolition Man” challenged for heavyweight gold at UFC 203, where he suffered a first-round knockout loss to Stipe Miocic in September 2016.

The 40-year-old Dutchman owns a…

Cub Swanson will attempt to hand Giga Chikadze his first Ultimate Fighting Championship defeat when the featherweights lock horns on May 1.

Multiple outlets confirmed the bout following an initial report from Adjarasport. UFC Fight Night takes place at an as yet to be announced location and is headlined by a light heavyweight clash between Dominick Reyes and Jiri Prochazka.

After enduring a four-bout skid from December 2017 to May 2019, Swanson has scored consecutive victories against Kron Gracie and Daniel Pineda in his last two Octagon appearances. The World Extreme Cagefighting veteran notably authored a six-fight winning streak early in his UFC tenure that included wins over Jeremy Stephens, Dustin Poirier and Charles Oliveira but has never fought for a title in the Las Vegas-based promotion.

Chikadze will bring a seven-bout winning streak into the matchup with Swanson. The 32-year-old Georgian is 5-0 in the UFC and was very active in 2020, posting triumphs…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvm62DKK2iY&w=560&h=315]

Joseph Benavidez did some soul searching after his loss to Deiveson Figueiredo in the UFC Fight Night 172 headliner this past July.

It was his fourth loss in a UFC flyweight title bout since 2012, and the division’s perpetual top contender had to make peace with the notion that his days of challenging for championship gold were over. It took some time, but Benavidez finally found the impetus he needed with a matchup against the unbeaten Askar Askarov at UFC 259 on Saturday.

“I think after my last title fight I came to the acceptance that was probably my last title fight,” Benavidez said during a virtual media day. “That’s kind of what I put in my mind. I had some fight offers earlier, and I wasn’t loving it.

“Then when I finally decided this was a good timeframe I want to fight in, and take a good break and fall back in love with training and the sport …. What’s the next best thing? I’m still wanti…