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The UFC Mexico City card continues to take shape with the addition of three new fights.

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The Las Vegas-based promotion on Friday announced the following bouts: Drew Dober vs. Manuel Torres at lightweight; Lupita Godinez vs. Julia Polastri at strawweight and Ronaldo Rodriguez vs. Kevin Borjas at flyweight.

UFC Mexico City — also known as UFC on ESPN 64 — takes place at Arena CDMX in Mexico City, Mexico, on March 29 and is headlined by a flyweight showdown pitting Brandon Moreno against Steve Erceg.

Dober has lost three of his last four Octagon appearances, including a third-round TKO defeat to Jean Silva at UFC on ESPN 59 this past June. Mexico’s Torres had a three-bout winning streak snapped in his last outing, when he suffered a first-round TKO loss to Ignacio Bahamondes at UFC 306.

After winning all four of her fights under the UFC banner in 2023, Godinez dropped back-to-back decisions to Virna Jandiroba and Mackenzie Dern last year. P…

🗣️ Islam Makhachev on Ilia Topuria:

“I heard [Ilia] has problems cutting weight… he’s probably already gained fat from the good life…

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Let him move up, and when he earns his chance we will definitely fight.”

🎥 @MatchTV #UFC #MMApic.twitter.com/7RjHW94szK

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) February 14, 2025

Islam Makhachev believes Ilia Topuria’s primary motivation to move up is his inability to cut weight.

Topuria has recently been planning a move up to lightweight to challenge Makhachev for the lightweight title. The ever-confident featherweight champ believes he can have his way with Makhachev, currently the UFC’s pound-for-pound king.

However, Makhachev isn’t willing to offer Topuria an immediate title shot upon moving to lightweight. The lightweight champ believes Topuria’s plans to move up to 155 pounds stem from an inability to make 145 pounds due to the “good life.” While he is willing to fight T…

UFC 313 is turning into quite the striker’s delight showcase.

Per a Friday report from ESPN Deportes, Jalin Turner (14-8) will take on Ignacio Bahamondes (16-5) on March 8 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The 155-pound pairing on UFC 313 was confirmed shortly after its posting by Bahamondes on Instagram.

Currently ranked in the top 15 on Sherdog’s Official Rankings at 155 pounds, Turner has dropped three of his last four within the past two years. After consecutive split decision losses against Mateusz Gamrot and Dan Hooker, “The Tarantula” bounced back by blasting Bobby Green at the end of 2023. His lone 2024 outing did not go his way, as Renato “Money” Moicano put the screws to him and handed Turner his first stoppage loss since 2018.

Meanwhile, Bahamondes is coming off back-to-back first round knockouts over Christos Giagos and Manuel Torres, both taking place in 2024 and the latter at UFC 306, also known as Noche UFC. Since debuting in the league in 2021…

[embedded content] The Professional Fighters League listened to the mixed martial artists who comprise its roster, to the fans and to the critics. One year after their purchase of Bellator MMA, the PFL decision makers moved to abandon their season and points-style format in favor of a single-elimination World Tournament in 2025.

While it was easy to bring over Bellator fans and some of the company’s well-known veteran fighters, the PFL gave rise to its own stars in 2024, most notably Dakota Ditcheva. The American Top Team standout proved she was the best women’s flyweight in the promotion by cruising to the 125-pound championship in convincing fashion. The PFL leaned into Ditcheva and other young talents, including Ireland’s Paul Hughes, who shined in a closely contested defeat to Bellator lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov in January.

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By altering its format, moving on from some of the biggest names on the integrated roster and building toward …

You can't miss this middleweight main event tomorrow night 🤩

Jared Cannonier vs @Gregory_MMA

[ #UFCVegas102 | TOMORROW | 7pmET on @ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/E9kW8lPTpI

— UFC (@ufc) February 14, 2025 The Ultimate Fighting Championship continues its busy February with UFC Vegas 102, which had one speed bump at the weigh-ins before its otherwise quick conclusion.

The main event is a middleweight showdown between former title challenger Jared Cannonier and Gregory Rodrigues. Ever the professionals, both men made weight for the five-round headliner. Every fighter that hit the scales made their proper marks, however Mashrabjon Ruziboev never weighed in due to illness and his match with Jared Gordon was nixed.

Cannonier (17-8) is looking to snap a two-fight losing streak against Nassourdine Imavov and Caio Borralho. "The Killa Gorilla" had previously won four of five fights, with key wins over Marvin Vettori, Sean Strickland, Der…

Count Caio Borralho among those who think Dricus Du Plessis should stay in his lane at 185 pounds.

Right after cornering Bruna Brasil at UFC 312, top-ranked middleweight Borralho, conducted an interview with Brazilian journalist Laerte Viana. There, the top contender broke down what he thought about the champion of his division, Du Plessis, as well as what the future lies for him and the rest of the weight class.

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“He doesn’t have a beautiful game but he makes it work,” Borralho said of the champ. “He has heavy hands [and] a strong chin. His biggest quality in my opinion is that even [when] tired, he keeps the same pace. [He is] always very disciplined on his strategy and never leaves a punch without an answer.”

Outside of the top five and looking in courtesy of his latest win, a decision over former title challenger Jared Cannonier, Borralho has his sights on the best middleweight currently offers. Even if he does not want a specific fight for hims…

It might come as a surprise that the man known as “The Black Belt Hunter” is expecting to pick up a submission win in his next outing.

Rodolfo Vieira (10-2) will make his Octagon return against Andre Petroski (12-3) at UFC Fight Night 251, which is scheduled for Feb. 15 inside of the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The middleweight grapplers are expected to ply their trade on the main card of an event also headlined by 185ers. Vieira talked with Sherdog about this upcoming pairing, who discussed what he expected and where he wanted to go from a win.

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“The camp was excellent,” Vieira admitted. “We just have to make some adjustments, because I was initially scheduled to face Jacob Malkoun, [Robert] Whittaker’s training partner, but five weeks to the fight he got injured, so Andre Petroski replaced him. [Considering] Petroski is a southpaw, we had to make some adjustments.”

With only a few weeks to prepare for an entirely new styled opponent, the Brazilian stuc…

.@UFC announces updates to #UFCSeattle ⤵️https://t.co/ZiBGw71mlYhttps://t.co/ZiBGw71mlY

— UFC News (@UFCNews) February 13, 2025 Editor's note: The article was updated at 3:45 p.m. ET on Feb. 13 to add another fighter withdrawal.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Seattle comeback is falling apart at the seams.

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Over the last few days, rumors or reports have come up about numerous alterations to UFC Seattle, also known as UFC Fight Night 252, going down on Feb. 22. Most notably is the breaking of the news that Macy Chiasson suffered an injury and has been forced out of her bantamweight contest with Ketlen Vieira, without replacement planned for either woman.

The UFC announced on Thursday that fight’s cancelation along with two new pairings and the confirmation of one bout shifting to a later event. Curtis Blaydes and Rizvan Kuniev were expected to battle in this Seattle showdown, but they have been bumped to UFC 313…

pic.twitter.com/vflbCX75a8

— Sean Strickland (@SStricklandMMA) February 12, 2025

Eric Nicksick’s very public critique of Sean Strickland could have consequences for the Xtreme Couture coach.

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Nicksick, who has been Strickland’s main coach during his rise to becoming middleweight champion, wasn’t pleased with his charge’s performance against Dricus Du Plessis in the UFC 312 main event this past Saturday. Nicksick made that very clear when he referred to it as "uninspired fighting” during a recent interview on “The Ariel Helwani Show.”

Strickland, who lost a clear-cut unanimous decision in his rematch with Du Plessis, has responded to the criticism via social media. It appears that the ex-UFC champ will no longer have Nicksick in his corner going forward.

“I like Eric. He’s a friend of mine and he’s going to continue to be a friend of mine. Will he probably be in my corner? Probably not,” Strickland said in a video …

The Good Guy vs The Bad Guy 👊@DC_MMA and @ChaelSonnen will coach Season 33 of #TUF! pic.twitter.com/x2Lo53ycx9

— UFC (@ufc) January 19, 2025

The cast for the 33rd season of “The Ultimate Fighter” is now official.

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The UFC on Wednesday unveiled the full 16-fighter roster for “TUF 33,” which will feature flyweights and welterweights. The new season will debut on May 27 via ESPN2 and ESPN+. Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen will serve as opposing coaches on the long-running reality show.

With three prior UFC appearances on his resume, Joseph Morales is a familiar face on the flyweight cast. He went 1-2 during that stint but has since put together three consecutive triumphs on the regional circuit.

“TUF” 33 will also feature a pair of Dana White's Contender Series alums: flyweight Roybert Echeverria, who suffered a third-round TKO defeat to Jafel Filho in September 2022, and welterweight Matt Dixon, who suffered a thir…

A featherweight clash pitting Josh Emmett against Lerone Murphy is expected to headline the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s event on April 5.

MMAFighting.com was first to report the bout. The UFC Fight Night event will take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and also includes a 145-pound tilt between Giga Chikadze and David Onama.

Emmett will be back in action for the first time since December 2023, when he scored a brutal first-round knockout victory against Bryce Mitchell at UFC 296. Prior to that, the Team Alpha Male product had suffered back-to-back losses against current featherweight champ Ilia Topuria and former No. 1 contender Yair Rodriguez. Emmett owns notable victories over the likes of Calvin Kattar, Dan Ige, Shane Burgos, Michael Johnson and Ricardo Lamas during his Octagon tenure.

Murphy is unbeaten in 16 professional outings, with the lone blemish on his ledger coming via split draw against Zubaira Tukhugov in his Octagon debut at UFC 242.…

Professional Fighters League has officially revealed the fighters who will compete in the upcoming welterweight and featherweight tournaments.

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The welterweight division is highlighted by former Bellator MMA champion Jason Jackson, who won eight consecutive fights before relinquishing the belt to Ramazan Kuramagomedov in a unanimous decision defeat at Bellator Champions Series Dublin last year. Also part of the field is Magomed Umalatov, who reached the welterweight finals of the 2024 PFL season, where he suffered a third-round technical knockout loss to Shamil Musaev. Former Bellator 170-pound champion Andrey Koreshkov and ex-interim title holder Logan Storley will also be part of the bracket.

Meanwhile, the featherweight field features the return of 2023 PFL champion Jesus Pinedo, who did not compete at all in 2024. Pinedo’s opponent in the 2023 finals, Gabriel Braga, is also part of the 2024 lineup. Another featherweight favorite figures to be M…

Khamzat Chimaev recently cleared the air about his citizenship after acquiring a new passport.

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Chimaev became an official citizen of the United Arab Emirates last week. This is the third country that “Borz” can now call his home. Born in the Chechen Republic of Russia, Chimaev moved to Sweden at just 19 years of age and now most recently to the UAE. Chimaev says both Russia and the Emirates are dear to him and he would love to be an inspiration to the youth in both countries.

“I’m grateful to the people who trusted me and gave me the opportunity to live both here and there,” Chimaev recently told Ushatayka. “Russia is my motherland and I represent the UAE. They always help me when I have fights. Abu Dhabi became a sporting hub. There are always events here. I’ll be happy to help the youth in these countries.”

After having built up his MMA career at the All Stars Training Center in Stockholm, Sweden, Chimaev has been blamed for deserting the c…

Khabib Nurmagomedov’s kindness even extends to his fellow coaches.

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American Kickboxing Academy coach Javier Mendez recently revealed yet another benevolent gesture from the former Ultimate Fighting Championship champ. During a recent episode of Mendez’s podcast, his co-host congratulated him on his new apartment.

“Thank Khabib. He got me a new apartment,” Mendez replied.

The relationship between Nurmagomedov and Mendez goes back to 2012, when the Dagestani’s father first brought him to the U.S. Mendez played a key role in shaping Nurmagomedov’s career, their relationship transcending that of just a coach and pupil. While Nurmagomedov retired from the sport in 2020, he continues to coach his cousins and teammates from Dagestan alongside Mendez.

Mendez also shared a close bond with Khabib’s father, the legendary Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov. Abdulmanap had envisioned his son to become a world champion and for his other pupils like Islam Ma…

Belal Muhammad claims to have the strategy to beat Dricus Du Plessis.

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Muhammad is the latest of several UFC champs who are looking to move up a weight class to fulfil double-champ aspirations. “Remember the Name” is teasing a move up to middleweight to challenge Du Plessis, who recently defended his title with a dominant decision over Sean Strickland at UFC 312 last weekend.

According to Muhammad, he’ll beat “Stillknocks” in every aspect of the game for the first two rounds, leaving him frustrated by the third round. When Du Plessis attempts to implement his awkward style, Muhammad plans on taking his back and submitting him in the third frame.

“I'd come out him with a 1-2, then he'd wing an overhand. I'll duck it, change levels and take him down. Then he'd shrimp and get the underhook to get out, but he'll be too weak to get up, so then I'll hit him with ground-and-pound for the rest of Round 1,” Muhammad wrote on social media. “Round 2 start…

Xtreme Couture coach Eric Nicksick didn’t mince words while addressing Sean Strickland’s latest loss.

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Strickland faced Dricus Du Plessis in a title rematch at UFC 312 this past weekend in Sydney. Du Plessis dominated Strickland for 25 minutes to earn a unanimous decision win. While Strickland is typically known as a defensive striker, the output seemed to be below his usual standards. Nicksick could be seen visibly frustrated in the corner as he failed to motivate Strickland to go for broke even in the championship rounds.

Nicksick didn’t sugarcoat his disappointment with Strickland when speaking of the loss. According to Nicksick, it was just “uninspired fighting” on Strickland’s part on such a massive stage. Nicksick urges Strickland to decide whether he really wants to become a champ or is just in it for a payday.

“It was uninspired fighting,” Nicksick told Ariel Helwani. “It just seemed like he was sleepwalking. It was tough man. I was j…

MARK YOUR CALENDARS 🗓️

International Fight Week is BACK! See you in June! 👋#UFCFightWeek pic.twitter.com/1PoN8a4k3a

— UFC (@ufc) February 11, 2025

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The dates are set for one of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s signature offerings.

The promotion on Tuesday revealed that UFC 317 will take place on June 28 and will be preceded by International Fight Week festivities, including the UFC Hall of Fame induction ceremony on June 26 and the UFC X immersive fan experience on June 27-28.

A venue wasn’t announced for UFC 317, but it is likely that it will be held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It’s the second consecutive year that the promotion has moved up International Fight Week and the ensuing event to the end of June after traditionally holding it in early July. No fights were revealed for UFC 317, but it’s an event that the promotion usually tries to fill with a number of high-profile bouts.

With UFC 315 …

Bill Algeo is calling it a career at 35 years old.

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The 10-time Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran announced his retirement in an Instagram post on Tuesday. Algeo went 5-5 during his tenure with the Las Vegas-based promotion. “Senor Perfecto” went 18-9 over the course of a professional career that began in 2012.

“This game has been good to me and helped me develop and become a better person,” Algeo wrote. “It’s going to be strange not having a fight coming up (unless Fauci decides to man up), but I’ll be guiding the next generation over at Algeo MMA. I’ve met plenty of cool [people] along the way chasing their dreams and shared the cage with some rivals, friends and heroes of mine.

“Thank you to the UFC and the UFC staff for taking care of me and for having the balls to bring sports back safely in the pandemic. My gym was labeled non-essential for [three to four] months and the UFC helped provide income during that weird time.”

Alge…

Coming off three consecutive victories, Gregory Rodrigues has already arrived in Las Vegas to headline his first UFC card against Jared Cannonier at the UFC Apex.

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“The camp couldn't be better,” Rodrigues told Sherdog.com. “I arrived in Las Vegas Monday night with Vicente Luque and my boxing coach, Dietter Navarro. Tonight [Gilbert Burns] is coming and tomorrow, Henri [Hooft]. Now I´m 100% focused on the weight cut and recovering even better.”

The Brazilian known as “Robocop” theorized as to why he received such a prominent name despite not being in the UFC’s middleweight rankings.

“I think the UFC likes to recognize hard workers,” he said. “After I accepted a short-notice call to face Leroy Duncan in Manchester, they offered me Ikram Aliskerov in December. I said yes, but he refused. I asked for [Paulo Costa], but he didn’t want the fight. Then they offered Roman Dolidze. I accepted; he didn’t. When the UFC came up with Cannonier, who has alr…

𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗢‼️ 𝗪𝗘 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞

All 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣5️⃣ #PFLWorldTournament First Round Events will take place in Orlando!

🎟️Tickets go on sale on 𝗪𝗘𝗗𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗗𝗔𝗬, 𝗙𝗘𝗕𝗥𝗨𝗔𝗥𝗬 𝟭𝟵𝘁𝗵

For more information 👇https://t.co/eCMG4faqPw pic.twitter.com/QP4VSKD8Wi

— PFL (@PFLMMA) February 11, 2025

Professional Fighters League’s new format will begin in earnest this spring.

The organization on Tuesday revealed the first four dates and venue for the upcoming 2025 PFL World Tournament, which marks a departure from the promotion’s season format of past years. The first four events will take place on April 3, April 11, April 18 and May 1 on the backlot of Universal Studios Florida in Orlando, Florida.

The single-elimination tournament will feature brackets at heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight, lightweight, featherweight, bantamweight and women’s flyweight. Athletes who win three times in five months to complete the bracket will earn a $…

Tatiana Suarez’s first title opportunity in the Ultimate Fighting Championship didn’t go as planned, but that won’t stop her from moving forward with her mixed martial arts career.

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Suarez suffered a surprisingly lopsided unanimous decision loss to reigning strawweight champion Weili Zhang in the UFC 312 co-main event this past Saturday at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia. While Suarez’s wrestling acumen was expected to give Zhang some difficulty, the Californian landed just one of 15 takedown attempts in the fight. After a promising opening stanza in which Suarez was able to ground her foe and rack up valuable control time, Zhang imposed her will over the course of the next 20 minutes.

Suarez addressed the defeat in a statement via Instagram on Tuesday.

“‘Champions don’t show up to get everything they want; they show up to give everything they have.’ And that’s what I’ll do every single time. No matter what,” Suarez wrote. “I love it al…

Joe Rogan wants to see Ilia Topuria vs Islam Makhachev for the 155 title, and Diego Lopes vs Alexander Volkanovski for the 145 title:

“I don’t care if [Ilia] only defended the title one time… who cares. Let’s go. Let’s f***ing go.”

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🎥 @joerogan #UFCpic.twitter.com/XvQsXVmzVw — Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) February 10, 2025

Joe Rogan doesn’t necessarily want to see Ilia Topuria defend his featherweight title again before moving up to lightweight.

Topuria dethroned Alexander Volkanovski via a vicious knockout at UFC 298 in Februrary 2024. The undefeated Georgian-Spaniard then defended his throne by knocking out Max Holloway for the first time in his career at UFC 308 in October. While rising contenders Diego Lopes and Movsar Evloev are in queue for title shots, Topuria has since been teasing a move up to lightweight while citing a lack of fresh contenders.

Rogan would love to see “El Matador” challenge light…

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Daniel Cormier recently revealed a conversation with Alex Pereira about fighting Dricus Du Plessis.

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Du Plessis made his second successful middleweight title defense with a dominant decision win over Sean Strickland at UFC 312 this past weekend in Sydney. In his post-fight Octagon interview, “Stillknocks” called out light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira, who was in Strickland’s corner. The South African did so by quoting the famous one liner from the movie Gladiator: “Is there no one left?”

Cormier, who was on the commentary team, subsequently made it clear to Pereira that Du Plessis called him out. Pereira allegedly dismissed Du Plessis as too small for 205 pounds. Regardless of whether the South African moves up at some point, “DC” notes that he first has to deal with at least Khamzat Chimaev at middleweight.

“Dricus Du Plessis is the man,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “In the Octagon, he called out Pereira. I told P…

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Brandon Royval had a good reason for withdrawing from his proposed main event clash against Manel Kape on March 1.

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In a video on his YouTube channel, the UFC flyweight revealed that he suffered two separate concussion in relatively close proximity. As a result, he decided that best move for his overall wellness would be to withdraw from the UFC Vegas 103 headliner. It wasn’t an easy call considering that his fight against Kape could have been a title eliminator.

“First and foremost, I’ve fought so many times injured. I’ve fought with broken hands, torn labrums, torn MCLs, all that, and for a lot less money and not as meaningful of events. Pulling out of a main event for the No. 1 spot was definitely a hard decision to make,” Royval said.

“Maybe a couple months back, I had a concussion. Nothing too crazy; I was just playing it safe, playing it smart. A couple weeks later, when I recovered, I accepted this fight, which was awe…