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The Ultimate Fighting Championship has been forced to call an audible for its March 5 pay-per-view event.

UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell confirmed to promotion broadcast partner ESPN that a five-round non-title bout between Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal will headline UFC 272 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The card was originally supposed to feature two title bouts — Alexander Volkanovski vs Max Holloway and Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan — but Holloway withdrew from the featherweight title trilogy and the Sterling-Yan bantamweight championship rematch was postponed.

Covington and Masvidal have history as former American Top Team training partners, but what was once a friendship has devolved into a bitter rivalry in recent years. Covington has since relocated to MMA Masters, while Masvidal remains at ATT.

Covington last appeared at UFC 268, where he dropped a competitive five-round verdict to Kamaru Usman in a welterweight title bout on Nov. 6…

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The stage has been set for the atomweight title ematch between Alesha Zappitella and Jessica Correa Delboni in the Invicta Fighting Championships 45 headliner.

Zappitella and Delboni both made weight without issue on Tuesday ahead of their second meeting within the all-female promotion. Zappitella tipped the scales at 104.8 pounds, while Delboni checked in at 103.8 pounds. Invicta FC 45 takes place on Wednesday night at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan., and airs on the Invicta YouTube channel beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

The sailing wasn’t as smooth for the rest of the card, however. Shamir Peshewa weighed 153.4 pounds for her 150-pound catchweight clash with Ramona Pascual (150) and was fined 25 percent of her purse. Meanwhile, Maria Jose Garcia Favela missed weight by by 2.4 pounds for a bantamweight scrap against Sarah Kleczka (135) and was also fined 25 percent of her purse.

Zappitella …

Andre Fialho will step in on short notice and face Michel Pereira at UFC 270.

The bout was originally slated for UFC on ESPN 32, but MMAFighting.com has reported that one of Pereira’s trainers tested positive for COVID-19, resulting in the postponement of the fight for one week.

Fialho is a replacement for Muslim Salikhov, who withdrew from the welterweight contest due to illness. ESPN was first to report the new bout. UFC 270 takes place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., on Jan. 22 and is headlined by a heavyweight unification title clash between Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane.

Anchored at Sanford MMA, Fialho has compiled a 14-3 record while competing for organizations such as Bellator, Professional Fighters League, Legacy Fighting Alliance and UAE Warriors. He enters his Octagon debut on a four-bout winning streak in which he has finished all of his victories by KO or TKO — including UFC veteran James Vick at an XMMA event last January.

Pereira i…

It appears that the bantamweight title rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan will take place approximately one month later than originally anticipated.

The fight was recently announced for UFC 272 on March 5, but Sterling revealed on his “Weekly Scraps” podcast that the title unification bout will likely move to UFC 273 on April 9.

“Quick update, I know you guys probably seen some of the news but yes, they are talking about pushing our fight back to April,” Sterling said. “Not because of me. This is what I was told, that Yan isn’t vaccinated. Yan isn’t vaccinated so he can’t fight in March. ‘I’m Yan and I’m not vaccinated so I can’t fight in March.’ I actually respect his gangster. If this is the real reason, I actually respect his stance. I respect it but it doesn’t make any sense and I’m making fun of it because it’s like was he going to be vaccinated in April? I don’t think so.

“So what are we doing? I just want to know when we’re fighting because d…

Kevin Holland will make his welterweight debut against Alex Oliveira at UFC 272.

Multiple outlets confirmed the booking after Holland initially announced the bout on his Only Fans page. UFC 272 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on March 5 and features a bantamweight championship rematch between Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan.

After a breakout 2020 in which he went 5-0, including a knockout of former Strikeforce champion Ronaldo Souza, Holland hit a rough stretch this past year. The 29-year-old known as “Trailblazer” dropped back-to-back headlining bouts against Derek Brunson and Marvin Vettori before an accidental clash of heads resulted in his UFC Fight Night 193 matchup with Kyle Daukaus being ruled a no contest. Holland is 8-4 during his tenure with the Las Vegas-based promotion.

A veteran of 21 Octagon appearances, Oliveira enters the clash with Holland on a three-bout skid. Most recently, the Brazilian “Cowboy” dropped a three-round verdict to…

Eduardo Dantas hasn’t fought on U.S. soil since a knockout loss to Juan Archuleta in Madison Square Garden at Bellator 222 in July 2019. That will change in the coming weeks.

"Actually, my return to America was scheduled for Fury FC 53 on Nov. 14, but with all the pandemic problems, I couldn't get a visa in time,” Dantas told Sherdog.com. “So now I’m [competing at] Fighting Alliance Championship on Feb. 6 in Kansas.”

The two-time Bellator bantamweight champion will face Combate Global veteran and former Contender Series competitor Jose Alday at the event.

"Jose is a good striker and also good on the ground, but I'm a sniper and I'm bringing a new version of myself,” Dantas said. “I trained a lot in the last two years and evolved everywhere. I never [tried to win on points], but now, more than ever, my focus is to not leave results in the judges’ hands.”

Dantas is well aware that UFC president Dana White is expected to be in attendance at FAC MMA Fight Nig…

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Former Rizing Fighting Federation lightweight grand prix winner Tofiq Musayev has signed a multi-fight contract with Bellator MMA.

Sherdog.com confirmed the deal with a promotion official following an initial report from Ariel Helwani. Musayev will compete at 155 pounds in Bellator, but a date for his promotional debut is currently unknown.

After a year-and-a-half hiatus, Musayev returned to action at Rizin 28 this past June, where he fell to Roberto de Souza via first-round submission in a lightweight title bout. That halted a 14-bout winning streak for the 32-year-old Azerbaijan native, who is 18-4 over the course of a professional tenure that began in 2013.

Musayev notably won Rizin’s grand prix in 2019, earning victories over UFC veteran Johnny Case and current Bellator lightweight champion Patricky Freire in the same night. His resume also includes triumphs against UFC veterans Damien Brown an…

Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC

Alexander Gustafsson believes that Allstars Training Center teammate Khamzat Chimaev has the potential to be a legend in the sport.

“[Khabib Nurmagomedov], [Georges St. Pierre], that’s the level of potential, 100 percent,” Gustafsson said in an interview with ESPN. “If he does all the things, if he does it right from the start, if he just keeps doing what he’s doing now, he will be one of those guys one day. I’m 100 percent sure of that....

“I met a lot of MMA athletes and fighters and all that, and he stands out for sure, because of his dedication, because of how he out-trains everybody. There’s nobody that trains like him, nobody. I haven’t seen it and I have been around the world, seen fighters train and having their camps and training for a fight. This guy just doesn’t get tired. He doesn’t feel any pain, he just goes through it.”

Chimaev rose to promimence thanks to a trio of dominant victories within the Las Vegas-based…

Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Marcin Tybura will lock horns in a heavyweight matchup at the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Feb. 26 card.

The booking was first reported by MMA journalist Marcel Dorff. UFC Fight Night takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a lightweight showdown between Beneil Dariush and Islam Makhachev.

Rozenstruik is coming off a rocky 2021 in which he lost two of his three Octagon appearances, dropping unanimous verdicts to current interim king Ciryl Gane and top contender Curtis Blaydes. In between, he scored a first-round TKO of Augusto Sakai in the UFC Fight Night 189 headliner. “Bigi Boy” is 6-3 in UFC competition overall, with other notable knockouts of Junior dos Santos, Alistair Overeem and Andrei Arlovski to his credit.

Tybura, meanwhile, saw a five-bout winning streak come to an end at UFC 267, where he dropped a three-round verdict to Alexander Volkov this past October. Tybura’s resurgence came on the heels of a s…

Former UFC competitor Justine Kish has signed with Bellator MMA.

Kish will compete in the women’s flyweight division, with a debut date yet to be determined. The deal was initially reported by journalist Shakiel Mahjouri.

The 33-year-old North Carolina native initially competed in the UFC’s strawweight division, where she went 2-1, earning a notable win over Nina Nunes. She went 1-3 after transitioning to flyweight, with her lone victory coming against Lucie Pudilova at UFC Fight Night 166.

Kish parted ways with the promotion following a split-decision setback to Tracy Cortez at UFC on ESPN 22 this past April. She is 7-4 over the course of a professional tenure that began in 2010.

Retired from mixed martial arts since a submission loss to Andre Muniz at UFC 262 last May, Ronaldo Souza is planning a return to combat sports – this time under boxing rules.

"I couldn't stay away from my training routine,” Souza told Sherdog.com. “I began to train boxing and I received a proposal to fight that I liked.”

Since he hasn’t signed the contract yet, “Jacare” was unable to reveal the event and potential opponent for his boxing debut, but he confirmed that the deal is close to being finalized.

"I cannot say the name of the event yet. What I can say is that my boxing is being sharpened already,” he said. “Even though I came from jiu-jitsu, I´ve always loved boxing, and if you see my MMA fights, I’ve always had strong hands.”

Considered one of the most respected jiu-jitsu champions of all-time, Souza was a two-time absolute jiu-jitsu champion (2004 and 2005) and one-time ADCC middleweight champion (2005) . In MMA, he compiled a 26-10 career mark,…

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UFC president Dana White and UFC commentator Joe Rogan were recently named to the Variety 500 as two of the “most influential business leaders shaping the global media industry.”

Both White and Rogan were mentioned in the Live Entertainment section of the list, joining the likes of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, WWE president Nick Khan, to name a few. The selection process for the overall list can be viewed here.

White’s entry focuses on his stance on vaccinations and the promotion’s approach to holding events during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“White declared the Ultimate Fighting Championship would never require its fighters to be vaccinated, continuing his controversially contrary approach to coronavirus safety,” the entry reads. “Under the UFC’s contract with ESPN, the league was required to stage 42 fights in 2020, and White did his best to deliver,…

After a September bout fell through, Jim Miller and Nikolas Motta have been rebooked for the UFC’s Fight Night card slated for Feb. 19.

Iridium Sports Agency, which manages Motta, initially announced the pairing. UFC Fight Night takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a lightweight clash pitting Rafael dos Anjos against Rafael Fiziev. The initial meeting between Miller and Motta was scrapped at UFC Fight Night 192 when Miller had to withdraw due to a positive COVID test.

A 37-time Octagon veteran, Miller snapped a two-bout skid in his most recent Octagon appearance, when he knocked out Erick Gonzalez in the second round at UFC Fight Night 195 this past October. The New Jersey native has lost three of his last five promotional outings dating back to 2020.

Motta is a former Cage Fury Fighting Championships title holder who signed with the UFC after a decision win over Joseph Lowry in November 2020. The 28-year-old Brazilian has had his debut …

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 battle for the best Rafael in the Ultimate Fighting Championship is on the books for a five-rounder in February. Twitter user Full Violence posted about Rafael dos Anjos (30-13) vs. Rafael Fiziev (11-1) coming together on Thursday night. The UFC’s broadcast partner of ESPN subsequently confirmed on Friday that this 155-pound encounter would headline the UFC Fight Night event on Feb. 19. The two top-ranked lightweights that had been chirping at one another on social media will come to blows at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Dos Anjos came back to the lightweight division in 2020 after eight bouts at 170 pounds including an interim title fight. His return to the division in which he was champ saw him defeat Paul Felder by a head-scratching split decision in which he likely won all five rounds in the eyes of most observers. The Bra…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVV5c0Jew0Y&w=560&h=315] A talented young Bellator MMA prospect has his next test in front of him this month.

On Friday, Bellator sources confirmed to Sherdog that Lucas Brennan (5-0) would be returning to the Bellator cage on Jan. 29. At Bellator 273, the 21-year-old son of longtime vet Chris Brennan will be facing Ben Lugo (5-4) in the featherweight division. As a pro, every one of Brennan’s fights have come inside the Bellator cage, while Lugo will be making his promotional debut on this fight card.

The man known as “Skywalker” has not missed a step since turning pro in 2019, rattling off four finishes in five victories all for the Bellator promotion. Most recently, Brennan submitted Matt Skibicki with an anaconda choke in June 2021 to continue his win streak. Of note, Brennan’s forearm choke on Jacob Landin at Bellator 233 in 2019 was the first of its kind in organizational history. While the 21-year-old recently told Sherdog…

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 MMA gods giveth, and the MMA gods taketh away. On Wednesday, Ultimate Fighting Championship head Dana White announced that Alexander Volkanovski (23-1) would be facing Max Holloway (23-6) for the third time atop UFC 272. The two were set to throw down on March 5 inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, but that fight was not meant to be. Per ESPN on Friday, Holloway has aggravated a past injury and can no longer compete on the March 5 card. There is no current word on whether Volkanovski will receive a replacement foe in two months, or if the headliner will shift to Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan 2.

Since a knockout loss in 2013 to Corey Nelson, Volkanovski has looked nigh-unbeatable in the sport. The Aussie has won an incredible 20 fights in a row, including 10 inside the Octagon. On his way up the division, Volkanovski top…

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 wouldn’t be an Ultimate Fighting Championship card in Houston these days without the inclusion of the great Derrick Lewis. Lewis (26-8, 1 NC) will be back in action less than two months after his last victory when he takes on fellow heavy-handed brawler Tai Tuivasa (13-3) at UFC 271. The news first came from MMA Junkie on Friday, reporting that the two big men will throw down on Feb. 12 inside the Toyota Center in Houston. Other outlets confirmed this booking shortly after its announcement.

“The Black Beast” came back after an unsuccessful effort to vie for the interim strap against Ciryl Gane by shellacking Chris Daukaus in the first round in December. That knockout for the Houstonian put him on top of the list for the most knockouts in UFC history, breaking a tie held by Vitor Belfort and Matt Brown. Over the years, Lewis …

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 is building up its Houston return to include an impressive offering of matchups, with the latest fun one at 155 pounds. MMA reporter Walter Salcido released news on Thursday of the UFC 271 matchup between Bobby Green (28-12-1) and Nasrat Haqparast (13-4). The lightweights will go to battle inside the Toyota Center in Houston on Feb. 12, and their placement on the billing whether on the main card or preliminaries has yet to be determined. Green has since posted about his excitement to return to Houston, and confirmed the pairing itself on his Instagram Stories.

In his last time out in November, Green punched out Al Iaquinta in 2:25 to earn his first stoppage win since 2013. The victory put an end to a two-fight skid that saw him fall short to Rafael Fiziev and Thiago Moises by close decision in …

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 new year is starting off troubling for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which lost a pair of promising Brazilian fighters from the first pay-per-view of 2022. On Thursday morning, MMA Junkie announced that Warlley Alves (14-5) had been forced out of his welterweight clash with the debuting Jack Della Maddalena (10-2) for currently undisclosed reasons. Several hours later, ESPN Deportes broke the story that ranked flyweight Viviane Araujo (10-3) will no longer be facing Alexa Grasso (13-3) due to an injury. The organization is seeking replacements for both Alves and Araujo at UFC 270, which will take place on Jan. 22 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

Winner of the third season of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil,” Alves has struggled as of late to gain any momentum in any direction. The Brazilian has alternated wins and …

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klv2upGSWC8&w=560&h=315] Triller Fight Club is moving full steam ahead to put on another spectacle between boxers and MMA fighters.

In December, the organization announced that Triad Combat 2 would be staged in February. Per a press release on Thursday, this show will be held inside the Toyota Center in Houston on Feb. 26. Headlining the mixed-rules event, as previously reported, is a heavyweight clash between Junior dos Santos and Kubrat Pulev.

The ruleset for this fight card, established at Triad Combat 1 in November, mixes boxing and MMA while not allowing elbows, knees or kicks. These shows will pit boxers against MMA fighters, with the boxing team captained by Shannon Briggs and the MMA fighters coached by Quinton Jackson. As a result of the rules in place, these matches are not considered professional boxing or MMA bouts. The round lengths will vary from fight to fight, and the dos Santos-Pulev tilt will take place across…

title fights, 𝐇𝐔𝐆𝐄 night at the @HondaCenter

[ #UFC270 | Jan 22 | @HondaCenter | Tickets https://t.co/0noMO5ApuD ] pic.twitter.com/n5MMFlqzTt

— UFC (@ufc) January 2, 2022 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. For the second year in a row, the Ultimate Fighting Championship will see the price of a pay-per-view rise by an extra $5.

First reported by Newsday Sports on Thursday and subsequently confirmed by Sherdog, the UFC will now be charging $74.99 for a PPV purchased through ESPN+. This follows a price hike from January 2021, where the promotion and its broadcast partner lifted the price from $64.99 to $69.99. The annual subscription fee for ESPN+ is now set at $69.99, which in itself is an increase from the previous year’s $59.99. It is currently unclear whether current yearly subscribers will be allowed to re-up at the previou…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIIkZ9C7EII&w=560&h=315] Bellator MMA lightweight champ Patricky Freire will only step aside for one man: his brother, Patricio Freire.

After capturing the Bellator lightweight belt at Bellator 270 with an impressive second-round knockout of Peter Queally in front of a hostile Irish crowd this past November, Freire has found himself challenged by featherweight champion A.J. McKee constantly on social media. Once his brother Patricio avenged Patricky’s own loss to Michael Chandler, Patricky saw the opportunity as the perfect path to retribution for what his brother did for him then. Patricky spoke to Sherdog on Wednesday about the possible matchup with McKee, and why he can’t take it yet.

“I would love to beat up McKee for [Patricio], but my brother is ‘too hungry’; he told me to stay away from McKee,” Patricky admitted. “That fight is his, and I obeyed.”

According to the lightweight champion, his return is already set up and his…

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. A beloved Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight is getting a chance to fight in front of a home crowd for the first time in 2014. The news first broke from MMA Fighting on Thursday, announcing that Matt Brown (23-18) will be squaring off with Bryan Barberena (16-8) at the UFC on ESPN event on March 26. The currently unnumbered fight card on the flagship network of the UFC’s broadcast partner will go down inside of the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The two were previously booked against one another in December, but the pairing fell through when Brown contracted COVID-19.

Brown, who has since confirmed this matchup on his Instagram account, rebounded from a pair of defeats to Miguel Baeza and Carlos Condit by starching Dhiego Lima in June. The 40-year-old Ohioan has seen tough sledding the last several years, winning …

A pair of title bouts featuring familiar foes are on tap for UFC 272.

UFC president Dana White informed broadcast partner ESPN on Wednesday that the Alexander Volkanovski-Max Holloway trilogy will take place at UFC 272 on March 5 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, while Aljamain Sterling and Petr Yan will square off for a second time at the same event. Contracts have not yet been signed for either bout, but both are expected to be finalized soon.

Volkanovski owns a pair of victories over Holloway. The 33-year-old City Kickoxing standout claimed the featherweight crown with a unanimous decision triumph over Holloway at UFC 245 before defending the belt with a highly-contentious split verdict in their rematch at UFC 251. Most recently, he defended the strap with a decision win over Brian Ortega in a “Fight of the Year” candidate at UFC 266 this past September to run his professional winning streak to 20.

Holloway has earned his spot as the top contender after t…