Martial Arts News

Javid Basharat was released from the UFC despite a winning record in the promotion. | Getty/UFC

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is moving on from some fighters following its most recent event.

The Las Vegas-based promotion has parted ways with Javid Basharat, Alex Morono and Lucas Almeida. Sherdog.com contributor Tom Feely initially brought word of the releases, which were later confirmed by MMAFighting.com. It’s unclear if the aforementioned fighters were cut, or if the UFC simply elected not to renew their respective contracts.

Basharat snapped a two-bout skid at UFC Fight Night 266 this past Saturday, earning a unanimous decision triumph against short-notice opponent Gianni Vazquez. The Dana White's Contender Series alum compiled a 4-2 mark with one no contest in the Octagon. However, all four of his triumphs came via decision.

No Last Dance Morono, meanwhile, displayed plenty of heart but was largely outmatched in a unanimous decision loss t…

On Tuesday, Flávio Alvaro revealed exclusively to Sherdog.com that he believes Jean Silva and Mauricio Ruffy will eventually overcome their disagreement regarding Ruffy's trip to Australia to train with Alexander Volkanovski.

With Ruffy's return to São Paulo, the coach believes the two will reconcile for the greater good of The Fighting Nerds team's health. During on appearance on Ag.Fight’s "Direto de Las Vegas" podcast, Silva didn’t hesitate when asked to name the best striker in the UFC.

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”Mauricio Ruffy,” Silva said. “He’s not pragmatic and manages the fight very well."

When it came time to choose the best grappler, Silva didn't hesitate either.

“[Khamzat] Chimaev. He won the belt fighting five rounds without throwing a single punch,” Silva said.

Arman Tsarukyan was named by Fighting Nerd as the best wrestler across all divisions, and he recognized former opponents Kevin Vallejos and Diego Lopes as having the toughest chins on the…

Tom Aspinall looks like something out of a horror flick after recently undergoing surgery on both of his eyes.

The UFC heavyweight champion recently shared a photo of himself following the procedure, humorously comparing his red-eyed image to Michael Jackson’s Thriller video while playing the theme from “Silence of the Lambs” in the background.

Tom Aspinall shows his eyes one day after surgery 👁️😬

(Via @AspinallMMA ) pic.twitter.com/KDUjNnvULB

— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) February 11, 2026 No Laughing Matter The incident that led to Aspinall’s current plight was no laughing matter, however. The Brit was on the receiving end of a double-eye poke early in his heavyweight title defense against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 this past October. The bout was ruled a no contest at the 4:35 mark of Round 1 when it was determined that Aspinall couldn’t continue.

The medical team who performed the surgery on Aspinall shared on update on the fig…

Charles Oliveira believes he is a completely different fighter since he first fought Max Holloway. 

Oliveira faced Holloway for the first time in a featherweight tilt in 2015. Holloway folded Oliveira with a couple of body shots in the opening round, forcing the referee to step in. Oliveira was carried out with his neck braced due to an esophagus injury. 

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Oliveira is now scheduled to challenge Holloway for the BMF title in a lightweight matchup in the main event at UFC 326 on March 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Oliveira says he has evolved into a completely different fighter since his first fight against Holloway. While Oliveira knows that Holloway has grown as well, “Do Bronx” believes he is more well-rounded than he was in their first fight.‘A Lion Among Lions’ “From that last fight to this one, I evolved a lot,” Oliveira said on YouTube. “In that fight, I entered with an injury. It’s a completely different Charles. I know he’s ev…

Geoff Neal has been through a rough patch for the past few years. 

Neal recently revealed that he has been battling alcohol and drug addiction for the past five years. It started around 2020 when Neal went into septic shock. Neal claims his longest periods of sobriety in the last five years were a couple of weeks before his fights. Despite going into his fights underprepared, “Handz of Steel” has surprised himself by managing to stay in the rankings all along. Neal recently overcame addiction by staying sober for 75 days straight.

‘I Fell Into a Hole’ “I got done with the 75 hard challenge two weeks ago,” Neal told Home of Fight. “But I had a real issue for five years, around COVID, when I got sepsis, I fell into a hole… I had a problem with addiction, drugs and alcohol, it was rough, five years of it. The longest I was sober within those five years was two weeks, and those weeks were usually before fights. I’d slow down two weeks before the fight, come to the fight …

Chael Sonnen believes Jon Jones’ drug testing failures don’t take away his GOAT status. 

Jones (28-1) is widely considered the greatest fighter of all time by virtue of his light heavyweight title run, which saw the most title defenses in UFC history. However, Jones’ legacy is marred by multiple performance enhancing drug violations, threatening his GOAT status. Khabib Nurmagomedov’s coach, Javier Mendez, recently said he picks Khabib over Jones as the GOAT, as “Bones” was caught cheating. 

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However, Sonnen believes the PED violations shouldn’t deprive Jones of GOAT status. According to Sonnen, Jones probably used PEDs like most others, but was caught for it. While Jones might not be the cleanest fighter, he is still the GOAT for his former foe, Sonnen.Not the Cleanest “I don’t know that Jon ever took anything that the rest of them didn’t take, but he got caught for it,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “I’m going to have to go with no… J…

Like many Dagestani MMA stars, Usman Nurmagomedov has the late Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov to credit for his success.

Usman (21-0) recently defended the Professional Fighters League lightweight title for the second time against Alfie Davis at PFL Road to Dubai. Usman subsequently thanked his uncle for the heights that he has scaled in his career. Usman revealed that while their father pushed him and his brother, Umar, into sports, he didn’t have championship aspirations for them. However, their uncle Abdulmanap saw great potential in them and alerted their father about the same. While Abdulmanap is no longer with them, Usman is glad to have his son, Khabib Nurmagomedov, fill in his shoes.

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Realizing His Potential “This everything is from my uncle Abdulmanap,” Usman said on the PFL Dubai broadcast. “My father pushed us into sports, but he didn’t have any plans that we’d be champions. But my uncle Abdulmanap, he believed in us. He always came to my father …

Former BKFC foes Mike Perry and Eddie Alvarez apparently had some unfinished business to settle outside of the ring.

In a video that surfaced on Tuesday, Perry appears to be involved in a verbal dispute with people in the crowd — with Alvarez standing nearby — at BKFC Knucklemania 6 at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. Eventually, that interaction turned into a full-blown melee, and footage seems to show Perry being punched and kicked by multiple people in the audience after he fell to the floor.

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Eventually, security was able to intervene and separate both sides. Meanwhile, Perry reacted to the incident on social media.

“They welcomed me to Philly as one of their own, and that floor was slippery as heck and his wife fell on her face, and I laughed at her,” Perry wrote. “ Looks like I was just down underneath everybody slipping for the first minute. Told y’all, eventful.”

They welcomed me to Philly as one of their…

Tom Aspinall remains on the road to recovery after undergoing surgery on both eyes.

The medical team that performed the procedure shared an update on the UFC heavyweight champion’s condition on Tuesday via Instagram. Late last year, Aspinall revealed he would need to undergo surgery after being poked in both eyes by Ciryl Gane in their title bout at UFC 321.

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“After his highly publicized eye poke injury, Optegra’s expert team is proud to have supported MMA fighter and UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall,” the post read. “Over recent months, we’ve been working closely with him on his recovery.

“Following his operation on both eyes we continue the journey to get Tom’s vision back to fighting fitness.”

Uncertain Timetable Aspinall has dealt with vision issues since UFC 321 and earlier this year shared that he was diagnosed with traumatic bilateral Brown’s syndrome, a condition which makes it difficult for an individual to move their eye freely in …

A feud between Fighting Nerds teammates Jean Silva (pictured) and Mauricio Ruffy recently became very public. | Getty UFC

After spending three weeks in Las Vegas helping Fighting Nerds members Jean Silva and Bruna Brasil in their UFC fights, Flavio Álvaro arrived in São Paulo on Monday and spoke to Sherdog.com about the conflict between Silva and Mauricio Ruffy.

A black belt in jiu-jitsu with over 60 Vale Tudo fights and one of the main figures responsible for grappling training on the team, Álvaro assures that he wasn't upset by Ruffy's statement saying that training with Volkanovski made him realize he knew nothing about grappling.

"Ruffy hadn't shown up for grappling training at The Fighting Nerds for a long time,” Alvaro said. “He always focused on striking with us, and you can see his excellence in that area. This change of scenery to Australia certainly motivated him to train grappling, and I think that's very positive. In fact, he didn't mean to …

Max Holloway has top billing at UFC 326, but he's unlikely to make the CBS portion of the broadcast. | Getty/UFC

For a two-hour window, UFC 326 will be broadcast on both Paramount+ and CBS.

The network announced on Tuesday that CBS will air its first-ever UFC event on March 7, simulcasting the final hour of the event’s prelims from 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT to 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT and the first hour of the main card from 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT to 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. As usual, the entirety of the UFC 326 lineup will stream on Paramount+.

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UFC 326 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by a BMF championship clash between Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira. A co-main event has yet to be confirmed for the card after Brian Ortega withdrew from a proposed matchup against Renato Carneiro. As it currently stands, it appears that Rob Font vs. Raul Rosas Jr. and Gregory Rodrigues vs. Bruno Ferreira would be the main card fights to …

Demetrious Johnson can’t be lured out of retirement. 

Johnson’s former foe, Henry Cejudo, recently retired from the UFC following a loss to Payton Talbott in December 2025. Cejudo is now set to compete in a wrestling match against fellow UFC veteran Urijah Faber at RAF 6 on Feb. 28 in Tempe, Arizona. Cejudo was recently telling Johnson how excited he is about the offer, which also allegedly includes a lucrative payday. Cejudo also briefly tried to convince Johnson to complete their trilogy on the wrestling mats at RAF.

“I know, dude… I’m stoked. It’s good stuff, and they’re paying good money, DJ… A lot of people are calling you out,” Cejudo said. “This is the trilogy!”

Resolute in Retirement However, Johnson was having none of it. “Mighty Mouse” is firm on his decision to stay retired from all sorts of competition.

“Don’t try to con me into this s—t,” Johnson replied. “I don’t wrestle, man. I’m retired and super busy. I’ve got my other stuff going on. You st…