Martial Arts News

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While Carlos Prates (20-9) is one of the most exciting welterweight prospects in the UFC today, his early career wasn’t as promising.

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Prates made his pro debut in 2012 and went 5-4 in his first nine bouts, alternating between wins and losses. However, “The Nightmare” has since turned his career around, winning 15 of his last 17 with 14 finishes. Prates credits the time he spent in Thailand for the abrupt turnaround in his career. The Brazilian also admits that he was still very young and susceptible to making mistakes during the early phase of his career.

“I think after I spend a lot of time in Thailand because Thailand give me a lot of experience,” Prates recently told Kevin Iole. “And make me more confident to fight [in] muay thai or MMA. Also, I was really young when I was losing a lot. And was fighting in wrong weight division. And didn’t train too much, spend a lot of time with things that don’t make me better. Then I get a l…

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Bo Nickal refuses to let go of his wrestling roots even after transitioning to MMA.

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Nickal is a former three-time NCAA Division I national champion from Penn State University. Nickal made his pro MMA debut in 2022 and found himself in the UFC after just three outings, which included two in Dana White's Contender Series.

Despite being primarily a wrestler, Nickal has two knockouts to his name and is showing progress in his striking. However, unlike many other wrestlers who focus only on striking after finding success on the feet, Nickal knows wrestling is his bread and butter. In order to practice pure wrestling regularly, Nickal reached out to American Top Team owner Dan Lambert. They built a gym just 10 minutes away from Penn State so that Nickal can train MMA in the mornings and join the university team for wrestling practice in the afternoons.

UFC 309: Jones vs Miocic. Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order Now!

“I wrestled…

Featherweight champion Chihiro Suzuki will defend his title in a rematch against ex-title holder Kleber Koike Erbst in the main event of Rizin Fighting Federation’s New Year’s Eve card.

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The Japanese promotion announced the bout during a press conference on Tuesday. The event, entitled Rizin 49 "Decade",” takes place on Dec. 31 at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, and is available via pay-per-view. No other fights were announced for the card.

Erbst was the reigning 145-pound champion for the first matchup with Suzuki in June 2023. However, the Brazilian lost the title on the scale when he missed weight one day prior to their meeting at Rizin 43. As a result, the belt remained vacant following Erbst’s first-round submission victory, which was declared a no contest due to Rizin rules.

Suzuki has won three straight contests since that defeat, beginning with a first-round knockout of Bellator champ Patricio Freire in a lightweight affair. H…

Mixed Martial Arts fighter Conor McGregor is due to appear before the High Court for a personal injury case against him https://t.co/D8XpT8kq8X

— Irish Daily Mirror (@IrishMirror) November 5, 2024

The alleged victim and the emergency room doctor who treated her testified against Conor McGregor during the beginning of a civil lawsuit related to an alleged sexual assault committed by the former UFC champion in 2018.

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McGregor and the alleged victim, Nikita Ni Lamhain (Hand), were both present in Dublin High Court on Tuesday. The civil lawsuit was filed in 2021 by Hand, who alleges that McGregor and James Lawrence raped her in a hotel room in December 2018. Both McGregor and Lawrence, who are not facing criminal charges, have denied the accusations. The beginning of the trial was covered by multiple outlets, including The Irish Times and the Irish Mirror.

According to testimony from Hand, she was an acquaintance of McGrego…

A women’s bantamweight tilt between Macy Chiasson and Ketlen Vieira has been rebooked for an Ultimate Fighting Championship card on Feb. 22.

Chiasson and Vieira were initially slated to meet at UFC Fight Night 234 on Jan. 13 before a knee injury forced Vieira to withdraw from the bout. Ag.Fight was first to report the new booking. The UFC Fight Night card does not currently have a confirmed location or headliner.

Chiasson is 2-0 thus far in 2024. “The Ultimate Fighter 28” winner kicked off her campaign with a first-round submission of Pannie Kianzad at UFC Fight Night 239 on March 16 before earning a second-round TKO stoppage of Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC 303 on June 29. The 33-year-old is 8-3 during her promotional tenure, which also includes fights at 145 pounds.

Vieira, meanwhile, returned at UFC 307 on Oct. 5, where she dropped a three-round verdict to two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison. Vieira’s resume includes notable wins over the likes of…

World Extreme Cagefighting veteran Hiromitsu Miura died recently following a battle with acute leukemia.

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In a statement on social media, Miura’s family revealed that he “passed away suddenly” on Oct. 26 after fighting the disease since mid-September. Miura was 43 years old.

“The funeral was attended only by his immediate family,” the statement read. “We would like to express our sincere gratitude for the kindness you extended to the deceased during his lifetime.”

Miura compiled a 13-8 record over the course of an MMA career that began in 2004. He was best known for a five-bout WEC stint, where he fell to Carlos Condit via fourth-round technical knockout in a welterweight title bout on Aug. 3, 2008. It was an entertaining, back-and-forth affair in which Miura dumped Condit on the canvas several times with judo throws before succumbing to a knee and follow-up punches at the 4:43 mark of Round 4.

Miura also competed for Pancrase, K-1 and …

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Zach Scroggin will replace the injured Nicolas Dalby and square off against Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos on short notice at UFC Vegas 100.

The promotion announced the change to the welterweight bout on Tuesday. The nature of Dalby’s injury was not revealed. UFC Vegas 100 — also known as UFC Fight Night 247 — takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a welterweight clash pitting Carlos Prates against Neil Magny.

Scroggin will take a 7-0 record into his promotional debut. The Kansas native has competed exclusively for the Fighting Alliance Championship organization during his professional tenure, finishing all but one of his opponents inside the distance.

Dos Santos is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Randy Brown at UFC 302 this past June.

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Michael Chandler had to move on from a long-anticipated booking with Conor McGregor to a matchup against Charles Oliveira.

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McGregor hasn’t fought since suffering a leg break in his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021. “Notorious” starred opposite Chandler as rival coaches on “The Ultimate Fighter 31” in 2023 with a future clash planned between the two.

After multiple delays in McGregor’s return timeline, they were finally scheduled to headline UFC 303 this past June. However, the Irishman pulled out two weeks before fight night due a toe injury. Meanwhile, Chandler also hasn’t fought since a submission loss to Poirier at UFC 281 in 2022, mostly due to awaiting a fight against McGregor.

Chandler will finally return to action in a rematch against Oliveira in a five-round co-headliner at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York. “Iron” recently revealed how he moved on from the McGregor figh…

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Yadong Song believes Umar Nurmagomedov will most likely have to go through him to secure a bantamweight title shot.

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While Nurmagomedov has been demanding a title shot against Merab Dvalishvili, the champ thinks the undefeated contender still has more to prove for a gold bid. Nurmagomedov was then reportedly on the verge of finalizing a UFC Tampa headliner matchup against Song in December. However, Nurmagomedov announced soon after that the booking was off as Yadong won’t be ready to fight at that event.

Nurmagomedov has since been going back and forth with Dvalishvili, who has consistently accused the Dagestani of enjoying privileges due to his relation to cousin Khabib Nurmagomedov. Nurmagomedov has verbally agreed to postpone the Song matchup to UFC 311 in January if Dvalishvili doesn’t agree to fight him. And “Kung Fu Kid” is positive that Nurmagomedov will have to fight him in January, unless Dvalishvili accepts the matchup be…

Shavkat Rakhmonov has his doubts about the timing of Belal Muhammad’s exit from UFC 310.

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Rakhmonov was scheduled to challenge Muhammad for the welterweight title in the main event at UFC 310 on Dec. 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. However, Muhammad pulled out of the matchup, citing a bone infection that led to severe swelling in his foot.

Rakhmonov has now questioned the recency of Muhammad’s injury. The undefeated Kazakh believes Muhammad’s injury is older than he advertised, as he claims to have heard of the champ training recently. According to “Nomad,” Muhammad could have fought at UFC 310 if he wanted to but chose to exercise more caution.

“From what I heard and what I know, he got injuries even earlier before it went public,” Rakhmonov recently told Ariel Helwani. “Because I [heard about] him train recently. Maybe he just posted his picture recently, but the problem occurred even earlier. So I think he [would be] able to fight in De…

Stipe Miocic (20-4) recently responded to critics of his UFC 309 title shot booking against Jon Jones (27-1).

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Miocic was originally scheduled to challenge Jones for the heavyweight title at UFC 295 in November 2023 before “Bones” was forced out with an injury. Tom Aspinall knocked out Sergei Pavlovich in a short-notice interim title fight on the same card.

While Aspinall initially called for Jones to be stripped of the title, he later started rallying for a title unification bout against Jones. “Honey Badger” even defended his interim strap with a KO win over Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 this past July. However, Jones remained adamant on fighting Miocic upon his return, leading to their main-event booking at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Miocic last fought at UFC 260 in 2021, when he lost his strap to Francis Ngannou via brutal KO. While many consider Aspinall the rightful title contender, the UFC has defended the book…

While it might appear that Michael Chandler wasted valuable years of his MMA career waiting on a Conor McGregor fight that has yet to materialize, the former Bellator MMA champion has a different perspective on that time away.

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“Having that much time off, I needed it. I really needed it,” Chandler told the New York Post. “Six training camps in a 26-month period, every single fight was do or die — Top 3, Top 5 guy, world title fights, fights of the night, fights of the year. And I love the sport; I am so blessed to do the sport of mixed martial arts as a professional and get paid for it and feed my family with it, but it was taking a toll on me. I needed some time off.”

Chandler hasn’t competed since November 2022, when he suffered a third-round submission loss against Dustin Poirier at UFC 281. He was then booked to coach opposite McGregor on “The Ultimate Fighter 31,” seemingly setting the stage for a big-ticket fight after the show. However, the b…