Martial Arts News

Dakota Ditcheva is a problem.

In the span of less than 365 days, the mauler from Manchester has won the Professional Fighters League Europe championship, five straight fights by KO/TKO, and on Friday at the PFL 2024 Season Championships, she became the youngest PFL global champ in history when she demolished Taila Santos (22-4) in two rounds.

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We could be watching the birth of a bonafide superstar in the world of women’s mixed martial arts. Ditcheva (14-0) is a monster. She showed that she has the wrestling to shut down a recent Ultimate Fighting Championship title challenger and the striking prowess to put anyone in her way into the dirt. Santos is a world-class fighter, who was one round away from winning the UFC flyweight title, and Ditcheva blew her out of the water. Her muay thai skills are deadly, and she shows no mercy.

You can etch Timur Khizriev’s name in the history books of the Dagestani empire. The undefeated featherweight claimed the…

Coverage of Friday’s 2024 Professional Fighters League MENA Finals and Global Season Championships will begin at 7:15 a.m. ET. Round 1 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:J.L. Kirven scores the round:Mike Pendleton scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:J.L. Kirven scores the round:Mike Pendleton scores the round:

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Round 3 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:J.L. Kirven scores the round:Mike Pendleton scores the round:The Official Result Round 1 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:J.L. Kirven scores the round:Mike Pendleton scores the round: Round 2 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:J.L. Kirven scores the round:Mike Pendleton scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:J.L. Kirven scores the round:Mike Pendleton scores the round:The Official Result Round 1 Sherdog Scores Brian Knapp scores the round:J.L. Kirven scores the round:Mike Pendleton scores the round:Roun…

The Professional Fighters League on Friday descended on King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with the PFL Middle East and North Africa finals serving as the appetizer for the PFL 2024 Season Championships. Four regional fighters were crowned as PFL MENA champions and could potentially find themselves a part of next season’s global showcase.

Ali Taleb quickly and brutally won the PFL MENA bantamweight title in one round after catching Rachid El Hazoume with an uppercut from the underworld. With the Moroccan staggered, Taleb put the finishing touches on his beatdown with a crispy right hook that put El Hozoume down for the count. The win marked Taleb’s second-straight first-round knockout.

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Mohsen Mohammadseifi claimed the PFL MENA lightweight title after unanimously outpointing Lebananon’s Georges Eid: 50-45, 50-45, 49-46. Despite the lopsided scores, the fight was much closer. Eid’s length kept Mohammadseifi at range, and the fight w…

[embedded content] Ultimate Fighting Championship great Fabricio Werdum is preparing to make the transition into coaching as he grows older.

At the tender age of 47, Werdum knows his time in competition is coming to a close. He is not quite done, despite last competing at Gamebred FC 5 in 2023 in a bare-knuckle match with Junior dos Santos. His slate predictably less packed given that he is no longer regularly fighting, Werdum is ready and willing to train other fighters to give back to the sport in a different way. In an interview with Sherdog on Thursday, Werdum discussed who he has his sights on to work with in the near future as well as what lays in store for him.

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One can count “Vai Cavalo” among the many impressed by Jon Jones’ recent performance against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309, and he thinks he might be able to have what it takes to help a standout competitor get the edge on Jones. That fighter? Alex Pereira, who is considering his next test be…

The first Professional Fighters League show of the new year will make use of its merged roster well.

The promotion announced via press release the top two bouts for PFL’s Road to Dubai, also known as Champions Series Dubai. This event, the rebranding of the Bellator MMA Champions Series from 2024, will be held on Jan. 25 at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The main attraction will be a lightweight championship attraction as Usman Nurmagomedov (18-0, 1 NC) puts his Bellator belt on the line against Paul Hughes (13-1). Additionally, the co-headliner comes at heavyweight as ex-Bellator kingpin Vadim Nemkov (17-2, 1 NC) battles PFL veteran Ante Delija (24-6).

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Nurmagomedov returned following a failed post-fight drug test for an undisclosed substance that resulted in his lightweight title defense against Brent Primus turning to a no contest. The promotion allowed him to keep his belt and continue defending it, as he staved off Alexandr S…

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As the Professional Fighters League prepares for the PFL 2024 Season Championships, there will be six $1 million award winners, several showcase bouts, and for the first time ever, PFL MENA will crown four champions.

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It’ll be a night to remember under a new legacy for the Professional Fighters League, with talent at each level. The event will also show how the PFL is looking to keep develop its regional leagues for integration in the global season.

One of those central to the plan is Dan Hardy, color commentator, host and head of fighter operations for PFL Europe. Ahead of the special and unique night for the PFL, Hardy talked with Sherdog.com about what to expect, how the first year with the Bellator roster has gone, and what to look forward to moving forward.

Winding down on their 2024 PFL season, Hardy acknowledges that not everything was perfect in the first year after acquiring the Bellator roster, but room for improve…

⚖️2024 PFL Featherweight World Title bout is official

Brendan Loughnane: 144.8 lbsTimur Khizriev: 144.7 lbs

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[ #PFLWorldChampionship | Friday, Nov 29th | 1PM ET | ESPN+] pic.twitter.com/MGwp9CWXYz — PFL (@PFLMMA) November 28, 2024 The Professional Fighters League will wrap up its 2024 season with all the title fights.

Sitting atop the 2024 Season PFL Championships card is a featherweight title fight between Brendan Loughnane and Timur Khizriev. Both men successfully made championship weight, as they came in under the 145-pound limit. The rest of the card was just as professional as the 10 other title fight participants on the card also hit their marks.

Loughnane (30-5) previously won the 2022 PFL featherweight tournament. He'll now look to gain his second season title after his 2023 outing was derailed by a knockout defeat to Jesus Pinedo. The British fighter has rebounded nicely by picking up wins over Pedro C…

نهائيات بطولة "PFL MENA" | الفيثر ويت

عبدالله القحطاني: 144.3 رطلًامروان بلكَويط: 144.4 رطلًا

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29 نوفمبر | #PFLMENA | جامعة الملك سعود، الرياض، السعودية | التذاكر عبر https://t.co/aZbvEPijAb🔗 | بث مباشر على منصة شاهد، قنوات إم بي سي أكشن و SSC#نصنع_التاريخ #السعودية… pic.twitter.com/qoXOQY2A6M — PFL MENA (@PFLMENA) November 28, 2024 The Professional Fighters League's inaugural Middle East and North Africa season is coming to an end with four championship fights.

While the bill has gone through some slight transformations on weigh-in day, all eight title fight participants successfully made weight for the event. This show serves as the preliminary portion to the 2024 Season PFL Championships event later that day. It will see PFL MENA fighters compete for gold in five-round fights in the welterweight, lightweight, featherweight and bantamweight divisions. Two fighters missed weight: Lilia Osmani, who came in 2.3 pound…

The lineup for UFC Saudi Arabia continues to grow, as a bantamweight clash between Vinicius Oliveira and Said Nurmagomedov and a lightweight tilt pitting Terrance McKinney against Damir Hadzovic have been added to the Feb. 1 event.

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Ag.Fight was first to report Oliveira vs. Nurmagomedov, while McKinney and his management announced the matchup with Hadzovic. The UFC Fight Night event takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and features a heavyweight clash between Sergei Pavlovich and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.

Oliveira, who is known as “LokDog,” will take a four-bout winning streak into his fight with Nurmagomedov. The 28-year-old Brazilian has kicked off his UFC tenure with a knockout of Bernardo Sopai and a unanimous decision win over Ricky Simon.

Nurmagomedov has won five of his last six Octagon appearances and is coming off a first-round submission of Muin Gafarov at UFC 294 in October 2023. The Dagestani has endured bad luck in 2024, with three po…

There have been a couple changes to the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s final pay-per-view of 2024.

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The promotion announced on Wednesday that Kennedy Nzechukwu will replace the injured Talisson Teixeira and face Lukasz Brzeski in a heavyweight clash at UFC 310. Additionally, Martin Buday has been removed from a proposed heavyweight matchup against Rizvan Kuniev due to injury and as a result, the bout has been canceled. The nature of the injuries to Teixeira and Buday were not revealed.

UFC 310 takes place on Dec. 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by a flyweight title tilt pitting Alexandre Pantoja against Kai Askaura. In the co-main event, Shavkat Rakhmonov will square off against Ian Garry.

After competing at 205 pounds for the majority of his promotional tenure, Nzechukwu made his heavyweight debut at UFC 308, where he defeated Chris Barnett via first-round TKO on Oct. 26. That snapped a two-bout skid for the Fortis MM…

Robert Whittaker recently gave due credit to former foe Khamzat Chimaev’s wrestling.

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Whittaker faced Chimaev in potential middleweight title eliminator at UFC 308 on Oct. 26. Chimaev wasted no time in taking Whittaker down before sinking in a face crank that injured the former champion’s jaw, forcing a stoppage in the opening frame.

Whittaker was immensely impressed by Chimaev’s takedowns. While “Bobby Knuckles” felt comfortable for a while on the feet, there was no getting away once Chimaev committed to the takedown. Despite having worked on his wrestling a lot in training camp, Whittaker couldn’t find anyone to replicate the Chechen-born Swede. Whittaker further noted that it isn’t Chimaev’s strength, but his chain wrestling that is most difficult to defend.

“I felt real comfortable standing with him,’ Whittaker recently said on the MMA Arcade podcast. “Then, the dude drops like a millimeter — how do you stop that takedown?... We did a lot …

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Considered the greatest representative for jiu-jitsu practitioners in the 1980s and 1990s, Rickson Gracie revealed in 2023 that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. And it was the battle against the disease that motivated him to launch his second book, “Comfort in the Dark: The Power of Invisible Jiu-Jitsu” in July 2024.

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In an interview on the “Mundo da Luta” podcast on Monday, Gracie spoke about the launch of his new book. In the interview conducted by journalist Ana Hissa, the jiu-jitsu legend revealed how his learning in the world of martial arts strengthened him in the battle against the recently discovered Parkinson's disease, which inspired the new work.

“The idea was that, with the story of my life, after this biography (in the previous book called “Respira”), it was missing that I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and I am going through a, let’s say, evolutionary phase of my life,” he said.”And I would like to pass on t…