Martial Arts News

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— Israel Adesanya (@stylebender) October 31, 2020

If all goes as planned, 2021 will be the biggest year of Israel Adesanya’s mixed martial arts career.

Shortly after the conclusion of UFC Fight Night 181, Dana White revealed that the reigning middleweight champion’s next step would be to move up a weight class to challenge 205-pound king Jan Blachowicz. White did not give a timeframe for the champion vs. champion superfight.

Adesanya, who is in Las Vegas to support a teammate on Wednesday’s Contender Series show, confirmed on the ESPN+ post-fight show that he had a productive meeting with the UFC president, adding that he will become “champ squared” in 2021.

“Me and Dana had a meeting yesterday in the war room. We went to his office, he showed me around. We hashed it out. Within two minutes we got the fight figured out, who I’m gonna fight next,” Adesanya said. “It’s said and done.

“I’ve been playin…

Dana White tells @bokamotoESPN that @stylebender will challenge @JanBlachowicz for the UFC light heavyweight title in his next fight, with a date and location still to be determined. pic.twitter.com/ENrcpECAyJ

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) November 1, 2020

It appears that Israel Adesanya will get the opportunity to become a two-division UFC champ in the near future.

In an interview with ESPN, UFC president Dana White revealed that Adesanya will move up to challenge reigning 205-pound king Jan Blachowicz in his next Octagon appearance. Adesanya is coming off a second-round technical knockout of Paulo Costa to defend his middleweight crown at UFC 253 on Sept. 26.

“He and I met yesterday. Had a great time, had a great meeting,” White said of Adesanya. “I was adamant on him fighting [Robert] Whittaker for the title; it’s the thing that makes the most sense. And then Whittaker comes out after the fight and says he doesn’t want to fight him, which is wa…

Throughout the week and the evening of the event, UFC Fight Night 181 was billed as Anderson Silva’s farewell bout.

However, during a post-fight interview with former foe and current UFC commentator Michael Bisping following his loss to Uriah Hall in Saturday’s main event, “The Spider” hesitated when asked if he was 100 percent ready to call it a career.

“I don't know, first I go back home and I go see with my team everything,” Silva said. “Let's go see because it's tough to say it's my last or not because this is my air. This is what I do for my entire life and with my heart. Let's go see.”

Silva held his own with Hall for the bout’s opening 10 minutes, but meaningful moments were few and far between during the initial two stanzas. Hall turned the tide when he floored the 45-year-old Brazilian late in Round 3 and flurried with strikes in search of a finish before the horn sounded. A counter right hook by Hall dropped Silva again in the fourth frame, and this t…

Do you want to be a fighter!?

TUF returns March 2021 - exclusively on #ESPNPlus pic.twitter.com/zSvCHrP27a

— UFC (@ufc) November 1, 2020 “The Ultimate Fighter” will make its return in 2021.

The Las Vegas-based promotion announced during the UFC Fight Night 181 broadcast Saturday that Season 29 of the reality show will premiere on ESPN+ in March. “TUF 29” will feature bantamweights and middleweights, with tryouts for the show beginning in November.

Coaches for “TUF 29” will be announced at a later date. Initially, the promotion floated a possibility of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor as opposing coaches, but Nurmagomedov rejected that idea and then announced his retirement after UFC 254.

According to a release, the previous 28 seasons of “TUF” will be available for fans to watch on ESPN+.

The most recent iteration of the series, “TUF 28,” premiered in August 2018 and featured Robert Whittaker and Kelvin Gastelum as…

Kevin Holland, Alexander Hernandez, Adrian Yanez und Meilen Johns jeder erhielt ein $50.000 "Performance of the Night" - check für Ihre Arbeit an UFC Fight Night 181 am Samstag.

Holland imba Charlie Ontiveros in Ihrer featured-Mittelgewichts-showdown in der UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Früh in Runde 1, Holland sicherte sich einen Körper sperren und knallte den Fury Fighting Championship-veteran auf die Leinwand. Der slam verursacht eine scheinbare Hals-Verletzung, die gezwungen Ontiveros auf mündlich Einreichen 2:39 in Runde 1.

Hernandez verdient seine performance-bonus auf die Stärke eines in der ersten Runde Stillstand von Chris Gruetzemacher in einer vorläufigen leichten Zusammenstoß. Das Werk X Produkt hatte Gruetzemacher Kokons früh, als er fiel ihm mit einem Linker Haken, und als sein Gegner wieder an seine Füße, Hernandez teed aus mit einem multi-punch-Kombination für die TKO-Sieg beim 1:46 mark von Runde 1.

Anderswo, Dana Weiß hat die Contender-Serie von Alau…

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. Sherdog's live UFC Fight Night 181 coverage will begin Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. Check out the MMA Forums to discuss the card or enter your comments and predictions below. Round 1 Kicking off this first-ever UFC card on Halloween is what could be a wild bantamweight scrap between two Legacy Fighting Alliance vets, as Johns (10-1, 1-1 UFC) welcomes “Quicksand” Natividad (9-1, 0-0 UFC) to the Octagon. There is an important rule change to clarify: the Nevada State Athletic Commission is implementing new replay rules, where a designated official outside of the cage can signal to the referee that the bout should be paused and something should be reviewed. This replay can be used any time throughout the bouts, and they can be restarted immediately after. That referee inside the cage will be Chris Tognoni for this one, and with no touch of g…

Uriah Hall sent his idol out on his shield.

The Fortis MMA standout overcame a slow start and perhaps some star-struck reverence, as he brought down former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight titleholder Anderson Silva with punches in the fourth round of their UFC Fight Night 181 headliner on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Silva (34-11, 17-7 UFC) — who stopped short of announcing his retirement in the immediate aftermath — bowed out 1:24 into Round 4 in what may have been his final appearance inside the Octagon.

"You're the reason why I'm doing this. Thank you so much."

Incredible. #UFCVegas12 pic.twitter.com/764LPSdgiF

— UFC Canada (@UFC_CA) November 1, 2020 Hall (16-9, 9-7 UFC) let the Brazilian icon lead the dance for two-plus rounds, as “The Spider” leaned on lateral movement, a steady stream of leg kicks and occasional bursts of punches. Everything turned in the waning seconds of Round 3. There, Hall dropped the …

Absolute Championship Akhmat title contender Magomedrasul Khasbulayev, who was supposed to fight reigning featherweight king Felipe Froes at ACA 113 on Nov. 6 in Moscow, was injured during training and has withdrawn from the bout.

ACA President Alexey Yatsenko recently informed Sherdog.com of Khasbulaev’s withdrawal.

“Magomedrasul Khasbulaev was diagnosed with a tear in the muscle fibers of the gastrocnemius muscle of his left leg, and will not be able to fight until the end of this year. However, the featherweight championship fight will certainly take place at the December ACA event,” Yatsenko said. “Froes will fly to Russia [soon] and will stay to train for the bout. He will fight Marat Balaev in ACA 116 headliner on Dec. 18.

“We will announce later the city of this event. And Magomedrasul Khasbulaev will have a chance after he recovers to face the champion.”

For Felipe Froes, this will be the first defense of the championship belt, which he took away f…

What a fight! We are headed to the 5th and final round! #LFA94 pic.twitter.com/VIcmA3eToT

— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) October 31, 2020 Inaugural Legacy Fighting Alliance strawweight champion Crystal Vanessa Demopoulos came up short in her first title defense against Lupita Godinez at LFA 94.

From the opening bell, Godinez (5-0) had a clear advantage on the feet against Demopoulos (5-3). "Loopy" continued landing at will in Round 2 and bloodied up the champion. "Lil Monster" showed tremendous heart as she never stopped coming forward. Godinez would drop Demopoulos in Round 4, but the champ would fire back for her best round of the fight to that point.

Thanks to Kansas using open scoring, it was known that the champion needed a finish if she wanted to retain the belt. Demopoulos hit a takedown mid-round, which gave her a clear path to victory. However, Godinez was able to hang on and reversed position. After five rounds of action, Go…

For the final time.

@SpiderAnderson hits the scales for one last dance. #UFCVegas12 pic.twitter.com/iDE2EhDGun

— UFC (@ufc) October 30, 2020 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. Editor's note: The article has been updated at 3:00 p.m. ET on Oct. 30 to reflect that Greg Hardy officially made weight.

A few Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters may have cracked into their Halloween candy a little early this weekend.

After another eventful stint on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, the UFC returns to Las Vegas. Headlining the first-ever UFC Halloween event is former middleweight king Anderson Silva taking on Uriah Hall. It’s been over seven years since Silva (34-10, 1 NC) has held UFC gold. He’s won only one fight in his last eight, having been awarded a decision over Derek Brunson. His last two fights saw “The Spider” lose a decisio…

Now that the #LFA94 weigh-in is in the books, which fight are you looking forward to the most tonight?

: https://t.co/kNlYKe9wVP

: https://t.co/tgI7oFbNCd@PsoRite@ShellsDotCom@AthleticCBD@GLCDirect2000@USENDmoney@IncaKolaUSA@FredLoyaIns@HartmanArena@UFCFightPass pic.twitter.com/XWsNTxZ42A — LFA (@LFAfighting) October 30, 2020 The Legacy Fighting Alliance ends the month and its third phase with a title fight on Halloween weekend.

LFA 94 is headlined by a women’s strawweight title tilt as Crystal Vanessa Demopoulos (113.4) returns from an unsuccessful outing on Dana White's Contender Series to defend her LFA 115-pound crown. Demopoulos won the title in a thrilling battle against Sam Hughes in July, where she put “Sampage” to sleep with an ultra-rare inverted triangle choke. Her opponent Lupita Godinez (114.6) has yet to lose as a professional, with most of her bouts going the distance including a victory at Combate Americas show in 2019.…

After the dust settled, two of four championship belts up for grabs changed hands at One ‘Inside the Matrix’ on Friday.

In the main event, Aung La N Sang (26-11) put his One middleweight title on the line against Reinier de Ridder. It took less than a round to "The Dutch Knight" to tame "The Burmese Python" and inflict Aung La his first loss in three years. The defending champion started the bout by landing an uppercut, to which De Ridder answered with a takedown. Once on the canvas, the unbeaten Dutchman took his opponent’s back in no time. Aung La attempted to get out of the sticky situation, even by grabbing the fence, but there was nothing he could do. At the 3:26 mark, Aung La was forced to tap after De Ridder’s neck crank slid under the chin into a rear-naked choke. In the process, De Ridder became the first Dutch champion in One history.

Christian Lee finishes undefeated phenom Iuri Lapicus with DEVASTATING ground and pound to retain the …