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@Kongo4real beats the bell and makes Sergei Kharitonov tap before the end of the nd round!#Bellator265 pic.twitter.com/PnU04aeLUz

— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) August 21, 2021

Cheick Kongo still has what it takes to get the job done under Bellator MMA’s bright lights.

A little more than three months removed from his 46th birthday, the ageless Frenchman submitted Pride Fighting Championships veteran Sergei Kharitonov with a rear-naked choke in the second round of their Bellator 265 headliner on Friday at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Kharitonov (30-8, 3-3 Bellator) capitulated 4:59 into Round 2.

Kongo (31-11-2, 13-4 Bellator) trudged through significant difficulty to get to the finish line. Kharitonov punished him with a powerful jab, hunted his patented uppercut and had him reeling with a kick to the face at the end of the first round. Everything changed in the second, where Kongo dazed the Russian with a thudding r…

Sherdog's live Bellator 265 coverage kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET.

Check out the MMA Forums to discuss the card or enter your comments and predictions below.

Round 1 Starting the Bellator card, we have a highly unusual 225 pound catchweight affair between Bailey Schoenfelder (1-0) and Kory Moegenburg (1-2). Keeping order between the pair will be referee Bobby Wombacher. Moegenburg begins with a couple of solid leg kicks and Schoenfelder isn't quite able to counter either time. Another leg kick is blocked, and Schoenfelder's right cross almost finds the mark. Moegenburg continues to fire leg kicks, but this time Schoenfelder checks them. Schoenfelder finally finds the mark with a right cross, as Moegenburg stays around the fence. Finally, Schoenfelder pasts Moegenburg with a few punches punctuated by an overhand right. Moegenburg stumbles forward, but Schoenfelder manages to push over his opponent onto the ground. Once there, Schoenfelder begins pounding away, and Moegenbu…

Two battle-tested Bellator MMA bantamweights will look to brawl in October.

The news first came from MMA Junkie, who reported earlier this month that Brett Johns (17-3) would be squaring off against Erik Perez (20-8) at Bellator 268. The two bantamweights will come to blows inside the Footprint Center – formerly known as the Talking Stick Resort Arena – in Phoenix on Oct. 16. The booking was subsequently confirmed by the promotion on Friday.

Johns, a Ultimate Fighting Championship standout that left the organization on a two-fight win streak, joined the Bellator ranks and subsequently dropped a decision to Danny Sabatello in May. Before facing Sabatello, the only two men to defeat Johns were current UFC champ Aljamain Sterling and top-10 contender Pedro Munhoz, while he racked up five victories inside the Octagon. Most notably, he hit a calf slicer on Joe Soto at the “TUF 26” Finale in 2017, thereby becoming the second fighter in UFC history to land such a submiss…

An all-Russian rumble at Bellator MMA's welterweight division will be coming to the Moscow card in October.

Igor Lazorin was the first to announce on Friday that the Andrey Koreshkov (24-4) and Rustam Khabilov (24-4) had agreed to face one another at Bellator 269. The Moscow card on Oct. 23 will be held at the VTB Arena, and the 170-pound matchup was subsequently confirmed by ESPN and then Bellator itself shortly after the news broke.

Since suffering the first decision defeat of his career – a split decision setback to Lorenz Larkin in 2019 – Koreshkov left Bellator for a single appearance with AMC Fight Nights, the renamed league of Fight Nights Global. The former champ hit a first-round armbar on Adriano Rodrigues de Oliveira to put himself back on the winning track, and he came back in August against Sabah Homasi. At Bellator 264, Koreshkov outworked Homasi en route to a one-sided unanimous verdict in his favor. Over the years, Koreshkov has defeated the likes of Do…

LIGHTS OUT from the #RefCam!#PFLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/By3mSPk89U

— PFL (@PFLMMA) August 20, 2021 Massive heavyweight Renan "Problema" Ferreira is confident that he is going to be a problem for any opponent going forward.

After three appearances in the Professional Fighters League heavyweight season, the most recent a 31-second knockout of Stuart Austin on Thursday, Brazil’s Ferreira is positive about his future with the organization. While an outing against Carl Seumanutafa went his way by one-sided decision, a match with countryman Fabricio Werdum was embroiled in controversy.

During the May bout, Werdum snared his opponent in a triangle choke, and although Ferreira tapped, referee Keith Peterson missed it and Ferreira went on to knock Werdum out. The New Jersey State Athletic Control Board overturned the result to a no contest shortly after it took place. Ferreira, speaking to Sherdog before boarding his flight to Rio de Janeiro, was…

First-round finish for @KaylaH #PFLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/s6bNP5VYia

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 20, 2021

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison advanced to the 2021 Professional Fighters League women’s lightweight final and made it look easy.

The undefeated American Top Team star disposed of Genah Fabian with punches in the first round of their PFL 8 headliner on Thursday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Harrison (11-0, 10-0 PFL) brought their semifinal to a close 4:01 into Round 1.

Fabian (4-2, 3-2 PFL) never stood a chance. Harrison closed the distance, trapped the City Kickboxing representative in the clinch along the fence and executed a takedown. She transitioned from side control to mount and threatened with an armbar before turning to her ground-and-pound. Harrison then battered the Kiwi with punches from above, floated to the back and continued the assault with both hands until refe…

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC, PFL and “The Ultimate Fighter” live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Sherdog's live PFL 2021 8 coverage will begin at 5:30 p.m. ET. Check out the MMA Forums to discuss the card or enter your comments and predictions below. Round 1 Beginning the night's fights, Christian "Hollywood" Lohsen (8-2) takes on Jonas "Joe Nasty" Flok (14-5). Both are newcomers to the PFL and the oddsmakers have this as a pure pick'em. Referee Gary Copeland gets the card's first assignment. Lohsen begins with a side kick, but Flok blocks in time. Lohsen goes for another one, and it lands solidly to the body this time. Flok comes forward with hooks, and Lohsen barely ducks in time. Lohsen throws a right jab, but Flok blocks. They go in for a grappling exchange, with Flok looking for a hip throw, but Lohsen shows nice balance to stay upright. Lohsen is being a little loose with his defense, and …

Living in a small fisherman's village in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte, the 13-year-old born Janigleison Herculano Alves decided he wanted to be a fighter after watching classic martial arts flick “Bloodsport” on television. At that time, there were no martial arts studios in his small district, so he boarded a bus to Mossoro about 40 km (25 miles) away, where he was welcomed by professional fighter Assuerio Silva.

After the boy explained that he wanted to be a pro fighter, Silva quickly strapped on his gloves. Silva then instructed Tibau to lay on his back and try to escape from mount, all while Silva was clubbing the young lad in the face with surprisingly heavy ground-and-pound. Any normal child would be traumatized, never passing by any martial arts academy again, but not the little Gleison Tibau.

“I got so deformed that I couldn’t return home,” Tibau reminisced to Sherdog. “Otherwise, my mother would be really mad. So, I stayed in Mossoro and returned t…

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 Roxanne Modafferi will go from one rising talent to another in September. Modafferi (25-18) was linked to a bout with Tatiana Suarez at flyweight at UFC 266 on Sept. 25, but Suarez was forced out due to a knee injury. In her stead, per ESPN on Thursday, will be the once-beaten Taila Santos (17-1). The two flyweights will step inside the cage at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on the pay-per-view prelims.

Syndicate MMA standout Modafferi has alternated wins and losses in her last nine since returning to the UFC in 2017. Ultimately falling short to Nicco Montano for the inaugural flyweight strap in her second season on “The Ultimate Fighter,” “The Happy Warrior” has gone the distance in seven of eight since the Montano fight. The lone stoppage in that stretch came when she batt…

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 surging Ultimate Fighting Championship strawweight is getting her wish of a top contender, even if it is one that is on a bit of a skid. On Thursday, Combate first reported that Nina Nunes (10-7) has her next fight booked against Amanda Lemos (10-1). The two strawweights will toe the line at a previously unannounced UFC event on Dec. 18, at a currently undetermined location. Even without a venue tagged, the show will likely take place inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, as the promotion has stated that fight night cards will be held in the Apex until the end of 2021 at minimum. The news has since been confirmed by other outlets.

Nunes returned from nearly a two-year layoff after having a daughter with two-division champ Amanda Nunes to face Mackenzie Dern in April. The Floridian succumbed to an armbar in the first round, thereby…

#BELLATOR265 Weigh-in Results: Jay-Jay Wilson (@TheMaoriKid1) - 150.4 lbs. pic.twitter.com/6CbPRWh8ak

— Bellator Public Relations (@BellatorPR) August 19, 2021 Only one fighter on the Bellator 265 card missed weight, but it was a costly miss as the planned co-main event was nixed as a result.

The now nine-fight card is headlined by Bellator MMA heavyweight contenders Cheick Kongo and Sergei Kharitonov. The co-main event was originally supposed to pit Adam Borics against Jay-Jay Wilson, but Wilson missed weight significantly and came in at 150.4 pounds for the featherweight bout. As a result, the fight is off, and Dante Schiro vs. Logan Storley will now serve as the penultimate bout.

Kongo (30-11-2, 1 NC) is coming off a split-decision defeat to Timothy Johnson. Prior to the setback, Kongo was undefeated in nine outings. The 46-year-old will look to show he still has more left in the tank. The French fighter officially weighed 247 pounds.<…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxJuFHHaAAo&w=560&h=315]

The middleweight finals of “The Ultimate Fighter 29” have a new pairing after Tresean Gore suffered a knee injury that forced him to pull out of a clash with Bryan Battle.

As a result, Battle will now square off against Gilbert Urbina with a UFC contract on the line. UFC president Dana White revealed the new pairing to TMZ Sports.

“Brutal for this poor kid, you know,” White said. “But, what we’ll do is when Tresean Gore is healthy, does he fight Bryan Battle if Bryan wins the fight? You know, I don’t know. We’ll see how this thing plays out. But, yeah, Gore is out.”

The “TUF 29” finals, which take place as part of the UFC on ESPN 30 card on Aug. 28, will also see Ricky Turcios square off against Brady Hiestand at bantamweight with a promotional deal on the line. The event takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a featherweight duel between Edson Barboza and Giga Chikadze.

Read more about Injury Forces Tresean Gore Out of UFC on ESPN 30, Bryan Battle Now Meets Gilbert Urbina

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihYuWvH-ijY&w=560&h=315]

The women’s lightweight bracket of the Professional Fighters League playoffs will look a little different than originally anticipated after Larissa Pacheco missed weight on Wednesday.

Pacheco, who was the top seed at 155 pounds, tipped the scales at 158 pounds for her proposed semifinal clash against Taylor Guardado (155.6). As a result, Pacheco has been replaced by No. 5 Mariana Morais, who checked in a 153.6 pounds. The other half of the lightweight semifinals are official, as defending champ Kayla Harrison (155.6) and opponent Genah Fabian (156) made weight for Thursday’s headlining bout.

Meanwhile, Bruno Henrique Cappelozza (235.6) will square off against Jamelle Jones (250.8) in one heavyweight semifinal, while Denis Goltsov (250) locks horns with Ante Delija (244.4) in the other half of the bracket.

The winners of their respective matchups will advance to the PFL championships on Oct. 27 for…

Shortly after he authored perhaps his best performance since moving to bantamweight in a unanimous decision triumph over Pedro Munhoz at UFC 265, Jose Aldo set his sights on a fellow former champion.

“It would be great for me to fight with [T.J.] Dillashaw,” Aldo said after his UFC 265 win. “Hopefully by December. I think it would be a great fight and that’s what we expect. That’s what I’m expecting right now.”

Dillashaw returned from more than a two-year absence at UFC on ESPN 27, where he captured a contentious split-decision triumph over Cory Sandhagen on July 24. While the ex-bantamweight king is open to a future clash with Aldo, he has some unfinished business he’d like to handle first.

“Yeah, I like the callout,” Dillashaw said in a recent interview with Submission Radio. “I would like to fight Jose Aldo. He’s a legend of our sport, and we can do it after I get my belt back.”

That means Dillashaw will have to wait for the winner of the rematch betwe…

Leah McCourt will lock horns with Jessica Borga in the Bellator 267 co-main event on Oct. 1.

Promotion officials announced the featherweight booking on Wednesday. Bellator 267 takes place at the SSE Arena in London and is headlined by a welterweight rematch between Douglas Lima and Michael Page. The main card airs on Showtime at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT, while prelims begin at 12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 a.m. PT.

McCourt enters the matchup with Borga on a five-bout winning streak, with four of those victories coming within the California-based promotion. Most recently, the 29-year-old Belfast native submitted Janay Harding in the second round at Bellator 259 on May 21.

Borga, meanwhile, had a two-fight winning streak snapped in a unanimous decision loss to Talita Nogueira at Bellator 256 on April 9. The Champions MMA export began her promotional tenure with a first-round submission win over Amber Leibrock at Bellator 226.

FIGHT CARD for ONE: Revolution! pic.twitter.com/AdUwBiBPne

— Chatri Sityodtong (@yodchatri) August 18, 2021

Three title bouts will top the card for One Championship “Revolution” on Sept. 24, the Singapore -based promotion announced Tuesday.

In the main event, Christian Lee will defend his lightweight (170-pound) crown against Rae Yoon Ok. Additionally, reigning strawweight (125-pound) king Joshua Pacio will meet Yosuke Saruta in a trilogy bout, while bantamweight kickboxing title holder Capitan Petchyindee Academy will lock horns with Mehdi Zatout.

One “Revolution” takes place at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore and airs on the One Super App. Three other contests were confirmed for the evening’s main card: Martin Nguyen vs. Kim Jae Woong at featherweight (155 pounds); Amir Aliakbar vs. Anatoly Malykhin at heavyweight and Victoria Lee vs. Victoria Souza at atomweight (115 pounds).

The 23-year-old Lee is currently on a six-bout wi…

The UFC on ESPN 30 card has lost a few fights after multiple fighters were forced to withdraw from the Aug. 28 event.

The most prominent exit involves Olympic silver medalist and former bantamweight title challenger Sara McMann, who announced that she is pulling out of a proposed matchup with Ketlen Vieira due to injury.

“Ugh, I have crappy news to share. I am out of the August 28 fight because of a reinjury,” McMann wrote. “I’m hoping like hell it’s a quick healing process but I’ll have to wait until I get the final prognosis to know. The worst part is that I was so healthy and having a really great camp.

“I know I’ll keep the gains I’ve made but I was really hoping to get the reward for all of the work I’ve put in the last few months. If [Ketlen Vieira] is able to wait and push our fight date back, I’m happy to do that. I’ll be back to the [UFC] as quickly as possible.”

It’s currently unclear if Vieira will remain on the card against a replacement oppon…

Two days after celebrating the gold-medal winning performance of his student, Herbert Conceicao, following his knockout of Oleksandr Khyzhniak at the Tokyo Olympics, boxing coach Luiz Dorea learned of Anderson Silva’s scheduled booking against Tito Ortiz under the Triller Fight Club banner on Sept. 11.

“I was already in L.A. at Anderson´s gym training my student, (2016 Olympic gold medalist) Robson Conceicao, for his first world title dispute against (WBC super featherweight champion) Oscar Valdez, when Anderson informed me about the fight against Ortiz,” Dorea told Sherdog.com.

“Actually I got really excited when Anderson told me about that fight. It will be a clash of MMA legends, two former champions under boxing rules.”  

Dorea has experience preparing for Ortiz after training Antonio Rogerio Nogueira for his matchup with “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” at UFC 140 nearly a decade ago. Nogueira would win that fight via first-round technical knockout.…

We're very saddened by the tragic news of Saul Soliz's passing. Saul will be remembered fondly as a world-class coach, leader and, more importantly, a world-class man. Sending our sincere condolences to those who had the privilege of knowing Saul. pic.twitter.com/klzvKDGgJE

— IridiumSportsAgency (@TeamIridiumISA) August 17, 2021

Saul Soliz, the leader of Metro Fight Club in Houston and a prominent coach in the MMA community for years, has died at age 55.

Soliz’s friend, John Gomez, revealed in a Facebook post that the cause of death was COVID-19. Soliz’s passing has since been confirmed by multiple outlets.

“He fought a long hard fight, anyone that knew JR knows he was a UFC trainer, he loved training his fighters and showing them how to become winners, not only in fighting but also how to live life -- he mentor so many , I’ll never know how many , I know it’s a long list,” Gomez wrote. “He really loved training his fighters- they all have…

Fifteen-time Octagon veteran Yancy Medeiros is no longer on the Ultimate Fighting Championship roster.

MMAFighting.com reported on Tuesday that Medeiros and Justin Jaynes have been released by the Las Vegas-based promotion. It is unclear if Medeiros and Jaynes were cut with existing fights on their deals or if their contracts were simply not renewed.

Medeiros has been with the UFC since 2013, compiling a 6-8 record with one no contest over the course of his tenure. He earned notable wins over the likes of Alex Oliveira, Erick Silva and John Makdessi. Medeiros exits the organization on a four-bout skid, including a decision loss to Damir Hadzovic in his most recent outing at UFC Fight Night 190 on June 26. The Strikeforce veteran earned five performance bonuses during his time with the UFC.

Jaynes exits the UFC on a four-bout skid after scoring a 41-second technical knockout win over Frank Camacho in his debut in June 2020. In his last outing, Jaynes dropped a s…

Credit: Pro Fight League

Saidyokub Kakhramonov will replace Leomana Martinez and lock horns with Trevin Jones at UFC on ESPN 29.

MMA Island was first to report the new bantamweight bout. UFC on ESPN 29 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a middleweight bout between Jared Cannonier and Kelvin Gastelum. The main card airs on ESPN and ESPN+ at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT following prelims at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

The 25-year-old Kakhramonov enters his Octagon debut on a two-bout winning streak after back-to-back knockout victories on the regional scene. Most recently, he stopped Tycen Lynn 45 seconds into the second round at Cage Fury Fighting Championships 92 on March 11. He also notably fought once under the Professional Fighters League banner, falling to Umar Nurmagomedov via unanimous decision in 2018. The Team Top Notch representative is 8-2 over the course of a career that began in 2017.

Jones last appeared at UFC 259, where he scor…

Misha Cirkunov will drop to 185 pounds for a matchup against Krzysztof Jotko at a UFC event on Oct. 2.

The Las Vegas-based promotion announced the pairing on Tuesday. The card is headlined by a light heavyweight duel between Thiago Santos and Johnny Walker and will likely be held at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Cirkunov will make his middleweight debut after compiling a 6-4 mark in the Octagon at 205 pounds. The 34-year-old Latvian began his UFC tenure with four consecutive triumphs but has fallen on hard times lately with losses in four of his last six outings. Most recently, Cirkunov suffered a 71-second TKO defeat to Ryan Spann at UFC Fight Night 187 on March 13.

Jotko, meanwhile, had a three-bout winning streak snapped in a decision loss to Sean Strickland at UFC on ESPN 23 on May 1. The American Top Team product is 9-5 in the UFC and 22-5 as a professional overall.

After a delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Holly Holm was inducted into the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame on Monday night.

Holm, a former UFC bantamweight champion who is from Albuquerque, N.M., was part of the 2019 class that was supposed to be enshrined one year earlier. Holm posted photos of the ceremony, which she attended with her family, longtime coach Mike Winkeljohn and manager Lenny Fresquez.

“Tonight I was inducted into the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame. I am honored and humbled,” Holm wrote on Instagram. “I truly appreciate everyone who has supported me in my journey thus far. My family, friends, coaches, manager, teammates and of course all of my fans. Thank you for believing in me in this journey and taking this ride with me. I am only more motivated to keep pushing to succeed and strive for greatness. I want to continue to make you all proud of me. It is impossible to put in words how much love I feel everyday. Here’s to aiming high. I am still striv…

Due to an accidental eye poke in the second round, Mason Jones vs. Alan Patrick ends in a no contest.#UFCVegas28 pic.twitter.com/SwYAqCgoDl

— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) June 5, 2021

A lightweight rematch pitting Mason Jones against Alan Patrick is on tap for an Ultimate Fighting Championship card on Oct. 23.

Both fighters confirmed the booking on social media following an initial report from Combate. The card is expected to be headlined by a middleweight showdown between Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori. A location has not been formally announced.

Jones was performing well agianst Patrick in their first meeting at UFC Fight Night 189 in June before an accidental eye poke from the former Cage Warriors two-division champion resulted in their bout being ruled a no contest at the 2:14 mark of Round 2. The 26-year-old Welshman is still looking for his first promotional triumph after dropping a unanimous verdict against Mike Davis in his debut…