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The long awaited return is finally here

@TMarretaMMA makes the walk tomorrow night!

[ LIVE on ESPN2 & #ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/ThAydIFk9t — UFC (@ufc) November 6, 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. It’s all systems go for this weekend’s Ultimate Fighting Championship event, with every fighter on the card making weight and not a catchweight contest in sight.

The UFC returns to the ESPN airwaves on Saturday with a Las Vegas card headlined by Thiago Santos and Glover Teixeira. It’s a light heavyweight bout with potential title implications, although Israel Adesanya’s plan to climb to 205 may have thrown a wrench in that.

In his last bout, Santos (21-7) came painstakingly close to dethroning Jon Jones. While “Marreta” ultimately lost a split decision, he earned plenty of fans after his spirited performance. The B…

WHAT A COMEBACK! Kiamrian Abbasov retains the ONE Welterweight World Title with a fourth-round knockout of James Nakashima! #InsideTheMatrix2 #WeAreONE #ONEChampionship pic.twitter.com/K8G2U3Xyet

— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) November 6, 2020 The One Championship welterweight belt returned to Kyrgyzstan after the dust settled at One: Inside the Matrix 2.

The card’s main event saw Kiamrian Abbasov put his welterweight belt on the line against the undefeated James Nakashima. The challenger started strong in the opening rounds, breaking the nose of the champ with one of his combinations. Despite the injury, Abbasov bit the bullet and tried his best to ride out Nakashima offense. The American dominated the first few rounds, especially on the ground.

In the fourth stanza, Abbasov felt the urgency to make a statement. After recovering from an involuntary low blow, Abbasov rushed towards his opponent. Nakashima changed levels for a tak…

Heavy shots from @CoreyA_MMA as round of the #Bellator251 main event winds down.

Catch round LIVE & FREE now on @CBSSportsNet in he U.S. and with @SkySports Mix in the U.K.#MMA #Bellator pic.twitter.com/BL1EwMzpHw

— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) November 6, 2020 Corey Anderson made a successful Bellator MMA debut against Melvin Manhoef in the headliner of Bellator 251. Anderson (14-5) immediately took down Manhoef (32-15-1, 2 NC) and pummeled "No Mercy" with punches on the ground. This cycle was repeated in Round 2, but "Overtime" was able to land several huge elbows that forced the referee to step in at 2:34.

The co-main event saw heavyweights Tyrell Fortune and Said Sowma face off. Fortune (9-1, 1 NC) was able to get back into the win column after suffering his first defeat earlier this year. However, Sowma (6-2) made the bout a competitive one and was the more active fighter later on. After 15 minutes of action, all three judges s…

Brutal!#AndNew - Amin Ayoub conquers Lightweight gold with this nasty knockout of Cleiton ''Predator''!#BRAVECF44 pic.twitter.com/o2BRR5twjH

— BRAVE Combat Federation (@bravemmaf) November 5, 2020 A French revolution took place in Bahrain on Nov. 5.

The Brave CF 44 main event featured an intriguing clash as Cleiton Pereira da Silva (15-3) put his lightweight title on the line against Amin Ayoub (15-4). The defending champion imposed his striking skills over Ayoub early on before taking his opponent to the canvas. The French contender looked very comfortable with his back on the canvas and answered with a relentless submission offensive. “Fierceness” attempted multiple armbars, but the champion shrugged them off and kept scoring with strikes on top.

The tide changed by the end of the third round, when Ayoub shook “Predator” with a few shots. Although Silva was saved by the bell, the damage was done. Sensing that his time to shine was near, …

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. Ultimate Fighting Championship strawweight Randa Markos will be looking to break her first career losing streak when she steps into a fight on short notice. On Tuesday, The Canadian Press put out a story that Randa Markos (10-9-1) was stepping in for Livinha Souza (14-2) to face Kanako Murata (11-1) at strawweight at UFC Fight Night 182. Confirming the news on Thursday was Combate, while also writing that Souza suffered an injury to her shin that will keep her out of action until January.

Markos returns less than two months removed from a first-round armbar defeat to Mackenzie Dern in September. With 20 career fights under her belt, the setback to Dern follows one from Amanda Ribas in March, setting the Canadian on her first losing skid. On the other hand, Markos has not won consecutive bouts since starting her career off at 3-…

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. Former Ultimate Fighting Championship title challenger Thiago Santos does not expect his upcoming headliner will last long. Sixteen months after a historic five-round title battle against Jon Jones, Santos is returning to the Octagon to face another Brazilian and former title challenger beaten by Jones. His thriller with Jones earned him surgeries in both knees, and confined “Marreta” to a wheelchair for two months. Despite the long absence, Santos is ready to pick up where he left off.

“Glover is a complete fighter that looks for the knockout or submission all the time,” Teixeira told Sherdog. “I would bet that this fight is not going to reach the 5th round. The only assurance I have is that fans will have a lot of fun in our fight.”

Santos also spoke about this matchup on Tuesday to Brazilian journalist Luis Coutinho, whe…

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. Former Ultimate Fighting Championship title challenger Thiago Santos does not expect his upcoming headliner will last long. Sixteen months after a historic five-round title battle against Jon Jones, Santos is returning to the Octagon to face another Brazilian and former title challenger beaten by Jones. His thriller with Jones earned him surgeries in both knees, and confined “Marreta” to a wheelchair for two months. Despite the long absence, Santos is ready to pick up where he left off.

“Glover is a complete fighter that looks for the knockout or submission all the time,” Teixeira told Sherdog. “I would bet that this fight is not going to reach the 5th round. The only assurance I have is that fans will have a lot of fun in our fight.”

Santos also spoke about this matchup on Tuesday to Brazilian journalist Luis Coutinho, whe…

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 Ultimate Fighting Championship beefed up its ranks by signing four competitors -- heavyweight Jared Vanderaa, featherweight Luis Saldana, welterweight Ignacio Bahamondes and light heavyweight Carlos Ulberg -- from Week 8 of Dana White’s Contender Series on Wednesday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Perhaps the most intriguing talent to land a contract, Ulberg blew away American Top Team’s Bruno Oliveira with punches in the first round of their encounter at 205 pounds. Oliveira (8-2) bowed out 2:02 into Round 1, losing for the first time in more than four years.

Operating out of the City Kickboxing camp in New Zealand, Ulberg (3-0) measured distance with leg kicks and waited for an opportune time to strike. The Israel Adesanya stablemate countered a lazy jab from Oliveira with a ferocious multi-punch burst -- right and left ho…

coverage kicks off Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET.

to discuss the card or enter your comments and predictions below.

Round 1

(+ Enlarge) | Photo: Getty/UFC

Vanderaa trapped Hunsucker and unloaded with leather.

Hunsucker throws a big overhand and Vanderaa ties him up and backs him into the fence, where he lands several knees to the body. They separate and Hunsucker rushes forward swinging wild, heavy punches. Vanderaa survives the onslaught and they return to the center of the cage. Hunsucker counters a kick with a left hook that lands and he unloads again with a heavy flurry of punches. Vanderaa lands an inside leg kick, but Hunsucker is the aggressor early, throwing everything behind his punches so far. Hunsucker loads up on a huge overhand right but Vanderaa eats it. Hunsucker wades forward but Vanderaa eludes a punch and secures a rear body lock. Moments later, Vanderaa dumps his man on the canvas. With Hunsucker on all fours, Vanderaa begins lan…

If Jan Blachowicz vs. Israel Adesanya does come to fruition, it won’t be until March at the earliest.

That’s when Blachowicz told ESPN he’d be ready to make his first title defense. The newly-crowned light heavyweight champion is expecting his first child with his wife in December, and his native Poland is still struggling to combat COVID-19. Blachowicz defeated Dominick Reyes to claim the vacant belt at UFC 253 on Sept. 26, and UFC president Dana White recently revealed that reigning middleweight champ Israel Adesanya will be next to challenge Blachowicz.

"I can fight in March with anybody," Blachowicz said. "It's no problem for me. But I cannot fight any earlier than March. If Israel wants to wait, no problem.

"In Poland right now, the situation is not so good, and we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. Right now we train normally, but nobody knows what our government is preparing for. We'll see what's going to happen later.”<…

A welterweight clash pitting Stephen Thompson against Geoff Neal is in the works for a UFC event on Dec. 19.

ESPN was first to report the bout. The event takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a welterweight tilt between Leon Edwards and Khamzhat Chimaev. Thompson vs. Neal has not been officially announced, but the promotion is close to finalizing the fight.

Thompson will be making his first Octagon appearance of 2020. The former title challenger halted a two-bout skid in his last outing when he took a unanimous decision over Vicente Luque at UFC 244 in November 2019. “Wonderboy” owns other notable wins against the likes of Jorge Masvidal, Rory MacDonald, Robert Whittaker, Johny Hendricks and Jake Ellenberger.

Neal has won his first five UFC bouts to emerge as a new contender in the welterweight division. The Contender Series veteran was supposed to face Neil Magny in August but was forced to withdraw from the contest for health reasons. N…

Former UFC middleweight No. 1 contender Paulo Costa recently did a live session on his YouTube channel in which he revealed a desire to face Robert Whittaker for the interim 185-pound belt.

“Whitaker is No. 1 in the rankings, I’m No. 2,” Costa said. “Once [Israel] Adesanya goes up to light heavyweight, it makes sense to have an interim title fight. I’ve already talked to [UFC president Dana White] and he said he would love to see that fight.”

There is recent precedent for such a move in the middleweight division: When Whittaker, who was the reigning champion at the time, was unable to compete at UFC 236 because he was recovering from hernia surgery, the promotion booked an interim title clash between Adesanya and Kelvin Gastelum. With Adesanya expected to move to 205 pounds to challenge reigning light heavyweight king Jan Blachowicz, it’s unclear how long it will be until “The Last Stylebender” makes another title defense at 185 pounds.

In the same live session,…