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UFC 232 already changed states and venues due to an abnormality in Jon Jones’ drug test results. Now Saturday’s headliner will have a new referee.

According to a report from MMAFighting.com, Mike Beltran will replace Herb Dean as the official for the light heavyweight championship clash between Jones and Alexander Gustafsson. Dean, who was appointed by the Nevada Athletic Commission, suffered an injury and will not be able to work on Saturday night at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. UFC 232 was moved from Las Vegas to California when the NAC declined to license Jones.

California State Athletic Commission executive officer Andy Foster will attempt to keep the rest of the judges that were chosen to score the two title fights at UFC 232, and Marc Goddard is still expected to be the third man in the cage for Cristiane Justino vs. Amanda Nunes, per the report.

Derek Cleary, Sal D’Amato and Junichiro Kamijo are expected to be judges for Jones-Gustafsson, while Chris Lee,…

A previously rumored clash between Cain Velasquez and Francis Ngannou is now official for the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s debut on the ESPN Network.

The Las Vegas-based promotion formally announced the heavyweight booking on Wednesday. UFC on Fox 1 takes place at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix on Feb. 17 and airs on ESPN. The still-growing card is also expected to include a bantamweight tilt pitting Jimmie Rivera against Aljamain Sterling.

Velasquez has been plagued more numerous injuries in recent years, which have limited his activity in the Octagon. The American Kickboxing Academy stalwart last appeared at UFC 200 in July 2016, when he scored a first-round technical knockout of Travis Browne. The 36-year-old former heavyweight champion has fought just twice overall since 2013, when he made successful title defenses against Junior dos Santos and Antonio Silva.

After looking underwhelming in back-to-back losses to Stipe Micoc and Derrick Lewis, Ngann…

Excited to announce that the Litecoin logo will be on the canvas as the Official Cryptocurrency Partner of @UFC 232 on 12/29 in Inglewood CA! Read more: https://t.co/y4yvPWb6rj pic.twitter.com/ddML54j5GH

— Charlie Lee [LTC⚡] (@SatoshiLite) December 26, 2018

While it may not be the ideal week for UFC 232, it looks like the Las Vegas-based promotion will start adding its own cryptocurrency sponsor for the final pay-per-view of 2018. Today, the Litecoin Foundation announced it the official cryptocurrency sponsor of the event and looks to be a first for the UFC, but not in MMA. This is a trend that began in Bellator MMA, more specifically with Rory Macdonald and Chael Sonnen announcing their DASH sponsorships earlier this year. Lightweight champion Michael Chandler also partnered with cryptocurrency exchange platform Coin Lion earlier this year.

In the cryptocurrency community, the comparison of bitcoin to gold and Litecoin to silver is often made…

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The Ultimate Fighting Championship apparently didn’t do a good job informing those competing on the UFC 232 card that the event would be relocating from Las Vegas to California on less than one week’s notice.

That event was transferred to Forum in Inglewood, Calif., when the Nevada Athletic Commission declined to license Jon Jones due to an abnormality in one of his drug tests. Jones tested positive for a residual amount of Turinabol metabolite, which anti-doping experts determined was a lingering effect of his failed test for the same banned substance in July 2017. As a result, the promotion elected to move the UFC 232 card in order to keep the main event intact.

Cristiane Justino, who faces Amanda Nunes in the evening’s co-main event, doesn’t believe Jones is guilty of using performance enhancing drugs in this instance, but she wasn’t pleased with the way the UFC decided to relay the information regardi…

Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight contender Alex Oliveira suffered injuries to his leg and foot last night when he was caught in the blast of a thrown grenade.

According to Brazilian news site Globo, "Cowboy" was home for the holidays in Tres Rios, a small town near Rio de Janeiro and was driving to a gas station to fuel up his mother's car when he saw several members of his family involved in an altercation. Oliveira stopped to investigate, and moments later a grenade was thrown in his direction.

“One guy came up and pointed a gun at my nephew’s face, and that’s when people started pushing each other,” Oliveira said. “They had machetes, knives, a grenade. They threw a grenade in my direction. Shrapnel hit my leg and my foot.”

Oliveira traveled to a local emergency room where doctors removed shrapnel from his leg before discharging him, then went to the police to file a report.

Oliveira (19-6-1, 1 N/C) competed most recently at UFC 231 earlier thi…

In an alternate universe, Corey Anderson might have been a short-notice replacement for Jon Jones had UFC 232 remained in Las Vegas.

In reality, Anderson is one of 25 other fighters on Saturday’s card who was greatly affected by the promotion’s decision to relocate the event to California. UFC 232 was moved from the T-Mobile Arena to the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., after the Nevada Athletic Commission refused to license Jon Jones due to a drug test abnormality.

The man known as “Overtime” is clearly unhappy with the inconvenience the move has caused, as well as the efforts made to accommodate Jones, who has twice failed drug tests in the past. In this instance, however, USADA determined that the trace element of steroid metabolite in Jones’ system was a lingering effect of his failed test in July 2017, not a new violation.

“If we all said no we won’t travel again would they just take Jones off the card and keep it in Vegas?” Anderson wrote on Instagram. Or book 1…

When it was optional, Jon Jones said, “No thanks.” Now, the former UFC light heavyweight champion has no choice if but to enroll in Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) testing if he wants to fight on Saturday.

According to a report from ESPN.com, Jones was required by the California State Athletic Commission to agree to VADA testing if his title bout against Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 232 was to be approved. Jones will become the first MMA fighter to be enrolled simultaneously in VADA and USADA, the UFC’s mandatory anti-doping program.

On Sunday, the promotion moved UFC 232 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., after the Nevada Athletic Commission declined to license Jones due to irregular findings in his drug test results. Jeff Novitzky, the UFC’s VP of Athlete Health and Performance, claimed that USADA and other doping experts confirmed that the trace elements of steroid metabolite found in Jones’ system were residual effects f…

While Jon Jones had a predictably unfiltered response to rival Daniel Cormier regarding the irregular drug test that led to the relocation of UFC 232, “Bones” had a more thoughtful message to the fans affected by the venue change.

“How’s it going everybody? It’s your boy ‘Bones’ Jones here. I just wanted to take the time out to apologize to the fans for what is going on. This is a situation that is completely out of my control,” Jones said in a video his Instagram story on Sunday evening. “But I still will man up and apologize for this happening. I realize there’s a lot of people who lost out in this situation. People came from Sweden, people came from Brazil, other fighters, I feel you guys’ frustration. Today has been a hell of a day. A hell of a day. Big shock to us all.”

Jones is scheduled to face Alexander Gustafsson for the vacant light heavyweight title in the UFC 232 headliner on Saturday. The card was moved from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to the Forum in …

Alexander Gustafsson appears to be unfazed by the last-minute change of venue for his light heavyweight championship fight.

On Sunday, Dana White announced that UFC 232 would be moving from Las Vegas to California on one week’s notice because the Nevada Athletic Commission declined to license Jon Jones for the event. A sample collected on Dec. 9 revealed trace elements of Turinabol metabolite, the same banned substance for which Jones tested positive in relation to UFC 2014 in July 2017. In this instance, it was determined that the ex-light heavyweight champion retained a small amount of that substance in his system from the previous failed drug test, which was why the event was transported to the West Coast at the last minute.

Given Jones’ history with failed drug tests, the news prompted plenty of skepticism throughout the UFC and the MMA community. Gustafsson took to Twitter to deliver his own message to Jones.

“Now we all understand why you didn’t take the [V…

The MMA world was in full meltdown on Sunday after the news broke that UFC 232 would be relocated from Las Vegas to Inglewood, California on six days’ notice due to an abnormality in Jon Jones’ test results, and one interested observer wasted little time in sounding off.

Jones tested positive for a trace amount of metabolites of Turinabol, the same prohibited substance for which he was sanctioned in July 2017. UFC President Dana White, maintaining his fighter’s innocence, claimed the fight had to go ahead, and UFC 232 has been hastily moved from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to The Forum in Inglewood.

The move is not only a logistical nightmare for the promotion but for the fighters on the card -- who only discovered the change of plans at the same time everyone else was finding out -- and the fans who had purchased their tickets and booked hotels in another state, some of whom are traveling from outside the U.S. to attend.

Two-division champion Daniel Cormier, who has hi…

UFC 232 has been moved from Las Vegas to California after the Nevada Athletic Commission refused to license Jon Jones due to an abnormal finding in his drug test results.

The NAC released a statement on Sunday announcing that it will require Jones to appear at an evidentiary hearing in January after “extensive analysis” of the former light heavyweight champion’s previous 18 months of USADA drug testing results.

“Today, Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) Executive Director Bob Bennett announced that, in consultation with NSAC Commission Chair Anthony Marnell, III, unarmed combatant Jon Jones will be allowed to withdraw his pending application for licensure, which was intended to clear him to fight in a major contest in Nevada later this month,” read a statement from the commission.

“After extensive analysis of Mr. Jones' prior 18 months of USADA in- and out-of-competition anti-doping drug testing results, Director Bennett, Chair Marnell, and Mr. Jones agree t…

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes has seen her share of high-profile bouts.

There was the victory over Miesha Tate to claim the 135-pound crown in the headliner of the promotion’s 200th card. There was a hard-fought split verdict against Valentina Shevchenko in the UFC 215 main event. And then, of course, there was the biggest of them all: a 48-second knockout of Ronda Rousey in the UFC 207 feature that announced Nunes’ presence to a legion of casual fans who previously thought that women’s MMA began and ended with the Olympic judoka.

Still, Nunes says that facing Cristiane Justino for the featherweight crown in the UFC 232 co-headliner is more significant than any other bout in her professional career. It will give “Lioness” the opportunity to become a simultaneous two-division champion, a feat matched only by Conor McGregor and Daniel Cormier.

“Definitely is bigger than the Ronda Rousey fight,” Nunes said during a recent conference call. “A true ch…

John Lineker and Cory Sandhagen will square off at UFC on ESPN+ 1 in Brooklyn on Dec. 23.

ESPN.com was first to report the bantamweight booking. UFC on ESPN+ 1 – also known as UFC Fight Night 143 – takes place at the Barclays Center and is headlined by a flyweight title clash between Henry Cejudo and T.J. Dillashaw.

Lineker was briefly slated to face Dominick Cruz at the recently-canceled UFC 233 card before Cruz withdrew due to injury. “Hands of Stone” has been victorious in eight of his last nine Octagon appearances, with his lone defeat during that time coming at the hands of Dillashaw, the reigning bantamweight king.

Sandhagen, who was briefly rumored to face Thomas Almeida in Brooklyn, has kicked off his promotional tenure with back-to-back TKO wins against Austin Arnett and Iuri Alcantara. The Elevation Fight Team representative is 9-1 over the course of a pro tenure that began in 2015.

Play the PFL 2018 World Championship Pick 'Em on @DraftKings.

Come out swinging and compete for your share of $25,000!

FREE ENTRY: https://t.co/byQeRGitZJ pic.twitter.com/hH8qkJEQkm— #PFLmma (@ProFightLeague) December 21, 2018

The PFL finalists are not the only ones in the running for big money, as the Professional Fighters League, along with Draft Kings, is giving fans a chance to win $25,000.

The league announced Friday that they will be partnering with Draft Kings to run a pick-em contest for the PFL 2018 World Championship on Dec. 31 in New York City.

The rules are simple: Register or sign in to your account with Draft Kings, pick your fighters, decide on the outcomes including rounds and time, and get them right to earn points and win your share of $25,000. You must make picks for all six tournament finals in order to be eligible.

PFL 2018 World Championship will take place on Dec. 31 at the Hulu Theater at Madison S…

The veteran vs the rising star!@HollyHolm meets @AspenLaddMMA at #UFC235 in Las Vegas! pic.twitter.com/p8UAplhboi

— UFC (@ufc) December 21, 2018

Coming off a first-round knockout of Tonya Evinger in October, Aspen Ladd has earned herself a fight against the elites of the division, as she will face Holly Holm at UFC 235.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship announced Friday that bantamweights Holm (12-4) and Ladd (7-0) will battle it out at UFC 235 in Las Vegas in March.

Former bantamweight champion Holm has alternated wins and losses in her last four bouts, most recently prevailing over Megan Anderson at featherweight. The two losses in that run were both featherweight title fights with Cristiane Justino and Germaine de Randamie, where she dropped both by decision. She has won post-fight bonuses in two of her last three outings. Holm celebrates arguably the biggest knockout in women’s divisional history when she lamped Ronda Rousey in 2015 t…

Your #UFCPrague main event is here and it has fireworks all over it! @JanBlachowicz vs @TMarretaMMA pic.twitter.com/sSXcbjndVy

— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) December 21, 2018

The Ultimate Fighting Championship will be giving fans in the Czech Republic plenty to cheer about, booking what is sure to be a slugfest between Jan Blachowicz and Thiago Santos.

On Friday, the UFC announced the headliner for their first trip to the Czech Republic in the capital city of Prague, where light heavyweight Blachowicz (23-7) will square off against Santos (20-6) at UFC on ESPN+ 3 in February.

Polish powerhouse and former KSW light heavyweight kingpin Blachowicz has had a bit of a career revival since mid-2017, starting 2-4 inside the promotion but rebounding in a big way to win his last four. Most recently, Blachowicz submitted Nikita Krylov with an arm-triangle choke in September. In those last four outings, Blachowicz has earned himself three post-fight bonu…

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Karate Combat burst on the scene in 2018 in a nondescript building in Budapest, Hungary, but with a unique production style, to rave reviews. Once that event aired, it was not long before they upgraded to the docks of Miami, Florida; a coliseum in Athens, Greece; and ended the year in style atop the One World Trade Center in New York City. Karate Combat blended the centuries-old martial art of Karate with the technology of today, and in 2019 they plan on taking their promotion to the next level.

According to press release from Karate Combat, the organization’s new structure will include championships and qualifying bouts to fight for those titles. CEO of Karate Combat Michael DePietro said, “We’re excited to expand Karate Combat in its second season with a more defined and expansive structure.”

In keeping with the unique and exotic locations that fans enjoyed in 2018, the promotion intends on going even …

Credit: Jason Burgos/Sherdog.com Credit: Jason Burgos/Sherdog.com Credit: Jason Burgos/Sherdog.com Credit: Jason Burgos/Sherdog.com

When Israel Adesanya takes on Anderson Silva at UFC 234 in February, he will be meeting one of his longtime idols. In a way, he feels that is an advantage.

“The Last Stylebender” continues to impress during his short career so far with his latest victory over Derek Brunson confirming his status as a genuine threat to the middleweight belt. The undefeated 29-year-old knows victory over Silva will likely secure him the No. 1contender spot in the 185-pound division and a shot at the title sometime next year.

Although standing in his way is a unique challenge in the form of “The Spider,” who dominated the middleweight division for nearly six years, dispatching opponent after opponent to cement his name as best 185 pound fighter ever. While at 43 years of age, Silva’s best days are well and truly behind him, Adesanya maintains that Silva is sti…

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By almost any measure, Michael Bisping had a very successful mixed martial arts career. Nonetheless, the first Englishman to win an Ultimate Fighting Championship title says there are a lot of things he’d change if he could.

Having officially hung up the gloves in May, the former middleweight champ has been enjoying retirement and his transition into life after fighting by securing an analyst role during the UFC on Fox fight cards. However, with the UFC’s pending move to ESPN next year, “The Count” revealed recently that he’ll be commentating UFC events going forward although nothing official has been announced yet.

The 39-year-old sat down with current UFC color commentator Joe Rogan on the “Joe Rogan Experience” and was asked by his host if there’s anything he would change if he could have a do-over in his career.

“A lot of things,” Bisping said. “If I could do it all over again, I’d d…

The undefeated Gregor Gillespie gets his next test in a bout all but guaranteed to result in fireworks against Yancy Medeiros this January.

According to Mark La Monica of Newsday on Thursday, Gillespie (12-0) will face off against Medeiros (15-5, 1 NC) at UFC on ESPN+ 1 on Jan. 19 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The two appear to be meeting at lightweight, as Gillespie always competes at that weight class, but Medeiros has made his last four appearances up a division at welterweight.

Unbeaten as a professional dating back to 2014, Gillespie has finished his last four opponents all within two rounds, earning three post-fight bonuses in those last four bouts. Throughout his career, Gillespie has stopped ten of his twelve foes, with all ten of those finishes coming within the first two rounds.

Medeiros will be looking to rebound off a knockout loss to Donald Cerrone at UFC Fight Night 126 in February as the headliner. Medeiros was originally scheduled to face Mi…

Bellator 214 on Jan. 26 is down a title fight. Gegard Mousasi is out due to injury. More: https://t.co/gICGtYZJnP

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) December 20, 2018

Eleven days before the start of the new year and 2019 has already lost a big fight, with Gegard Mousasi pulling out of his title bout against Rafael Lovato Jr. at Bellator 214 due to injury.

ESPN broke the news on Thursday, reporting that Bellator MMA middleweight champ Mousasi has been forced to withdraw from his bout at Bellator 214 on Jan. 26 due to a back injury. The promotion has not yet announced whether he will be replaced or if Lovato Jr. will stay on the card.

Mousasi won the middleweight belt when he became the first man to knock out Rafael Carvalho at Bellator 200. A veteran of 53 professional bouts, Mousasi celebrates a finish rate of about 85% across 45 victories. Mousasi is currently riding an eight-fight win streak dating back to 2016. This marks the first time Mo…

Hello @ufc middleweights. My name is Deron Winn.

Happy to announce I just signed with the big leagues! pic.twitter.com/rELQF7bJsK

— Deron Winn (@DeronWinn) December 20, 2018 Perhaps the best prospect to compete at Golden Boy MMA, Deron Winn just signed with the ultimate proving ground in mixed martial arts, the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The 29-year old Winn (5-0) announced on Thursday via social media that he has now signed with the UFC, and put other fighters on notice. He also announced his presence will be at middleweight, a weight class the 5-foot-7 wrestler will drop down to for the first time in his career.

All five of American Kickboxing Academy standout Winn’s previous bouts took place either at light heavyweight or at catchweights around 190 pounds, never taking the plunge lower. A one-time veteran of Bellator MMA, Winn knocked out Ahmed White in May 2018 at Bellator 199 before appearing at Golden Boy MMA: Liddell vs. O…

Future FC: Evento com proposta tecnológica promete resgatar protagonismo do Brasil no MMA https://t.co/vdlBW80H9m pic.twitter.com/ICPGPmjMWa

— Portal do Vale Tudo (@portaldovt) December 19, 2018

A new Brazilian mixed martial arts promotion is set to emerge starting in 2019, with its eyes firmly focused on the future of the sport.

The organization, titled Future Fighting Championship and helmed by former fighter and current Legacy Fighting Alliance manager Jorge Oliveira, intends on hosting over 20 events in their first year.

In their official press release, the promotion announced that it plans on being a different kind of promotion, whether it comes to above-average fighter pay, open contracts, another level of interaction between the fans and the athletes, or with additional weight classes. Future FC President Oliveira claimed “…we don’t have exclusive contracts…If [a] fighter has a better proposal, even if he has a fight scheduled in ou…

Despite Colby Covington’s apparent best efforts to make himself Public Enemy No. 1 in Brazil, there’s at least one prominent Brazilian in the fight game who claims to have no beef with him.

Covington made headlines and ruffled feathers after his fight against Demian Maia in Sao Paulo last October, referring to the natives of his host country as “filthy animals”. Covington had to be escorted out of his hotel building in Brazil by armed security when he left due to his comments.

As a result of those comments towards the people of Brazil, there had been rumors that the Brazilians at his gym at American Top Team in Florida, including Amanda Nunes and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, didn’t take kindly to the insults directed towards their homeland.

However, longtime UFC lightweight contender Edson Barboza, who also trains at ATT, spoke to reporters after his recent win over Dan Hooker and said he doesn’t have an issue with the way “Chaos” conducts himself (courtesy of MMA Ju…