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Two top Ultimate Fighting Championship flyweight contenders will get their names on the marquee unexpectedly.

On Thursday night, news broke that Marlon Vera vs. Cory Sandhagen had been shifted to UFC on ESPN 43 in March, leaving UFC Fight Night 219 with no headliner. The anticipated co-main event of Taila Santos (19-2) vs. Erin Blanchfield (10-1) for that Feb. 18 event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas has been elevated to the headliner slot, with this announcement coming via the UFC on Friday. The two flyweights will now be fighting across five rounds instead of three atop the billing.

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Santos suffered her first defeat in a few years when she came up just short against champ Valentina Shevchenko in June 2022 – in a fight that several media scorers scored the fight for Santos. The loss snapped a four-fight win streak, where she topped Molly McCann, Gillian Robertson, Roxanne Modafferi and Joanne Wood in the span of about 16 months. The Brazilian made her…

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A promising young Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight has just hit a huge snag in his career.

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On Friday, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency announced that Hamdy Abdelwahab failed a post-fight drug test on July 30, 2022, for methenolone, an anabolic steroid. Additionally, before USADA notified him of his failure, they tested him again on August 27 of that year, and once more he had methenolone in his system. Due to the lack of notification on USADA’s end, the two failed tests will be considered one violation, and he will receive a two-year suspension effective the July test date.

Abdelwahab made his debut on short notice at UFC 277 on July 30, and he defeated Don'Tale Mayes by split decision in a thriller. The agency requires that fighters entering the testing pool disclose any substances they have taken in the last year, so that they can sit out until testing clean without suffering a penalty. If fighters do not disclose a substa…

⚖️ Evelyn Martins comes in at 146.8 lbs

The bout will go forward at 147 lbs and she will be penalized 20% of her show purse.

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Fights are 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘 & 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 on @fubosports

[ #PFLonFubo | Women's Featherweights | Fri, Feb 3rd | 9pm ET] pic.twitter.com/P5CiS14res

— PFL (@PFLMMA) February 2, 2023 The latest Professional Fighters League Challenger Series show will feature eight fighters in the women's featherweight division.

Main event fighters Amanda Leve and Naranjargal Tsendayush had no issue making weight, as did most of the members on the four-fight card. The lone miss came from Evelyn Martins, who checked in at 146.8 pounds. Due to being .8 pounds over the limit, Martins' bout against Jeslen Mishelle will now be held at a 147-pound catchweight, and she has been fined 20% of her show purse.

Philadelphia's Leve (1-0) came in at 144.8 pounds, while her Mongolian opponent weighed 146 pounds. Both will look to st…

The first three Professional Fighters League regular season events will feature some high-profile pairings.

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The league on Thursday announced the headliners and co-main events for cards scheduled for April 1, April 7 and April 14. All three events will take place at the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas and air live on ESPN and ESPN+.

PFL 1 on April 1 will feature a featherweight showdown between 2022 champion Brendan Loughnane and former UFC bantamweight title challenger Marlon Moraes. In the co-main event, defending light heavyweight champion Rob Wilkinson will welcome 24-time UFC veteran Thiago Santos to the organization.

The following week, PFL 2 will be topped by a clash between 2022 heavyweight winner Ante Delija and Yorgan De Castro, a former UFC competitor who is coming off a victory over Junior dos Santos under the Eagle FC banner. In the co-feature, defending lightweight queen Larissa Pacheco will attempt to build on the momentum of her up…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship appears to have listened to the fans.

On Thursday night, Sports Illustrated first broke the news that Marlon Vera (20-7-1) vs. Cory Sandhagen (15-4) will no longer be taking place atop UFC Fight Night 219. That event booked at the UFC Apex will not keep Vera-Sandhagen on its billing anymore, as the five-round bantamweight bonanza has been moved to UFC on ESPN 43. This March 25 fight card will go down at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, rather than the confines of the Apex. It has not yet been determined which bout will serve as the headliner of the Feb. 18 show, but news of this shift has been confirmed by multiple outlets.

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After Vera vs. Sandhagen was announced, fan and media sentiment reflected that a large audience should be treated to the potential violence that is their five-rounder. The specific reason for its relocation was not announced, but neither fighter appear to have suffered an injury that would …

Ryan Bader admittedly wasn’t initially excited about the prospects of a rematch with Fedor Emelianenko.

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It didn’t take him too long to come around.

“At first I kind of felt that way, and then I started thinking about it,” Bader said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Being on CBS was a big factor. Anytime you’re in a Fedor fight it’s a huge fight. I’m proud to be a part of his legacy and for him to be a part of mine.

“It’s hard to turn down a Fedor fight. I didn’t necessarily know it was going to be his last one. It’s one of those things where I got more excited about it and when I finally put pen to paper, I was all in.”

Bader initially faced Emelianenko in the finals of the heavyweight grand prix at Bellator 214, where he claimed the belt with a 35-second technical knockout victory. The Power MMA Team stalwart isn’t taking away much from that first meeting — in large part because of the abbreviated nature of the fight. He expects the rema…

It’ll be hard for Johnny Eblen to top the fight that earned him the Bellator MMA middleweight championship.

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The American Top Team product claimed 185-pound gold with a five-round verdict over Gegard Mousasi in the Bellator 282 main event last June. After vanquishing one of the sport’s all-time great middleweights, Eblen will face a lesser known commodity in his first title defense when he locks horns with Anatoly Tokov in the Bellator 290 co-main event. While Tokov isn’t a household name, his seven-fight winning streak in Bellator and gaudy 31-2 overall mark made him an attractive opponent to Eblen.

“It’s just another challenge, another step in the right direction,” Eblen said at a press conference on Wednesday. “It’s the reason I called him out in the first place. I knew about his record. I knew he was 7-0 in Bellator. And I know he’s really good. So I want to take him out and put on a show in front of all these fans and on CBS.”

While the …

A number of mixed martial arts luminaries will be in attendance for Fedor Emelianenko’s swan song at Bellator 290.

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During an appearance on ”The MMA Hour,” Bellator president Scott Coker revealed a star-studded guest list that includes former opponents such as Mark Coleman, Dan Henderson, Quinton Jackson and Chael Sonnen. Other notables expected to be in attendance include Randy Couture, Renzo Gracie, Royce Gracie, Matt Hughes, Chuck Liddell and Frank Shamrock.

According to Coker, many of the aforementioned legends reached out to him about attending Bellator 290 on their own.

“It’s something that’s really special and means a lot to me because I look at this from a martial arts perspective,” Coker said. “These are the greatest martial artists of their time and their era and they really built what MMA is today and they really built the evolution of what mixed martial arts is today. They deserve to be in the cage with Fedor. It’s going to be a …

The decision by the UFC not to renew its broadcast deal with Rede Globo after a partnership that spanned more than 10 years has made a significant impact on the combat sports market in Brazil.

After the world’s largest MMA promotion decided to invest in its own streaming platform (UFC Fight Pass) with TV Bandeirantes as a partner, many fans of the sport thought that Combate, the only cable channel dedicated 24 hours a day to martial arts, would would be finished. After all, it would make no sense for more than 300,000 subscribers to keep paying a monthly fee of RS 49.90 ($9) without having access to the UFC as part of the subscription.

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Instead, the approach of having “everything but UFC” at a more affordable price for the subscriber was put into practice. After signing deals with One Championship, Glory, Rizin, Jungle Fight, Top Rank and Karate Combat, Combate is expected to announce the addition of Bellator and PFL to its broadcast roster in the ne…

＼ポスタービジュアル解禁/／🌸🌸🌸 #RIZIN41 🌸🌸🌸

📅：4.1(土) 14:00開始(予定)🏟：丸善インテックアリーナ大阪📝：https://t.co/ussCpDnsNl

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🎟チケット一般発売 2.19(日)~※ファンクラブ/RIZIN 100 CLUB先行 2.6(月)~ pic.twitter.com/pyxhbcqDo6 — RIZIN FF OFFICIAL (@rizin_PR) February 1, 2023

Rizin Fighting Federation’s schedule for the first half of 2023 is beginning to take shape.

The Japanese promotion recently announced the locations and venues for its next three events. The first of those is Rizin 41, which takes place on April 1 at Maruzen Intec Arena Osaka in Osaka, Japan. Meanwhile, Rizin Landmark, Vol. 5 is set for April 30 at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, and Rizin 42 will take place on May 6 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.

Four MMA bouts were confirmed for Rizin 41: Makoto Takahashi vs. Daichi Kitakata at flyweight; Vugar Karamov vs. Yoshinori Horie at featherweight; Yuto Hokamura vs. Koichi Ishizuka at bantamweight an…

Brazilian Vale Tudo icon Wilson “Passarito” Oliveira died on Sunday at the age of 94.

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A Brazilian judo champion in the 1950s and a former marine, Wilson de Oliveira became known as “El Passarito” when he represented Brazil in judo at the Pan American Games in Buenos Aires in 1951.

A great friend and training partner of Waldemar Santana, “Passarito” was a student of Augusto Cordeiro in judo and Euclydes Hatem in Luta Livre, coming from the same lineage of capoeira and Luta Livre fighters who came together to face the Gracie hegemony. “Passarito” faced Carlson Gracie three times at Vale Tudo events. The first was at the legendary Maracanã Stadium in 1953, three years before the historic fight in which Carlson avenged his uncle, Hélio Gracie, against Waldemar Santana.

Carlson began fighting while wearing the gi, but after being taken down many times, Helio Gracie convinced him to take the gi off during the course of the match. Despite “Passari…

A featherweight showdown pitting ex-champ Max Holloway against Arnold Allen is in the works to headline a UFC Fight Night event on April 15.

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Promotion broadcast partner ESPN was first to report the booking. The UFC Fight Night card does not yet have an official location or venue. The card is also expected to include a featherweight clash between Edson Barboza and Billy Quarantillo and a bantamweight tilt between Chris Gutierrez and Pedro Munhoz.

Holloway is coming off an unsuccessful bid to regain featherweight gold, as he dropped a five-round verdict to Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 276 this past July. The Hawaiian known as “Blessed” is now 0-3 against the reigning champion, which means his road back to the title will be difficult for as long as Volkanovski holds the belt. Prior to that defeat, Holloway secured back-to-back decision triumphs against Calvin Kattar and Yair Rodriguez in 2021.

Allen is undefeated in 10 UFC appearances and has l…

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Laura Sanko is set to become the first female commentator on a UFC broadcast during the Zuffa era when she joins the booth on Saturday night.

The promotion announced Monday that Sanko will be on the call for UFC Fight Night 218 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Sanko has previously worked as a reporter and analyst for the UFC while also doing commentary for Dana White’s Contender Series. She previously did broadcast work for Invicta FC.

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“Taking the next step to join the UFC commentary team has been a goal of mine since I began my broadcast career,” Sanko said in a release. “It is an honor to walk in the footprint of Kathy Long 30 years after her appearance on UFC 1. I consider it a true privilege to be part of the team that is a voice to our incredible fans, communicating the fighting art of each man and woman who steps inside the UFC Octagon.”

The aforementioned Long, a former kickboxing champion, called the UFC’s first-ever ev…

A knee injury has forced Julio Arce to pull out of his UFC 285 bout against Cody Garbrandt.

Multiple outlets confirmed Arce’s exit following an initial report from Eurosport. Arce is expected to require surgery after injuring the ACL and other ligaments in his knee. It is currently unknown if Garbrandt will remain on the card against a replacement opponent.

A competitor on Season 1 of Dana White’s Contender Series, Arce has compiled a 5-4 mark in UFC competition. The Team Tiger Schulmann representative has lost two of his last three Octagon appearances and is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Montel Jackson at UFC 281.

UFC 285 takes place on March 4 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by a heavyweight title clash between Jon Jones and Ciryl Gane. Arce vs. Garbrandt was slated for the preliminary card, which airs on ESPN and ESPN+ beginning at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

A rematch between Raquel Pennington and Irene Aldana is expected to serve as the main event for UFC on ESPN 43.

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The bantamweight bout, which is expected to be finalized soon, was recently confirmed by ESPN Deportes following an initial report from MMA journalist James Lynch on YouTube. UFC on ESPN 43 takes place at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas, on March 25 and also includes a 135-pound showdown between Holly Holm and Yana Kunitskaya. Pennington and Aldana initially squared off at UFC on ESPN 4 in July 2019, with Pennington prevailing via split decision.

Pennington is currently on a five-bout winning streak in UFC competition. The former bantamweight title challenger was successful in her first venture of 2023, as she garnered a split verdict against Ketlen Vieira at UFC Fight Night 217 on Jan. 14. Her current run also includes victories over the likes of Aspen Ladd, Macy Chiasson, Pannie Kianzad and Marion Reneau.

Aldana, meanwh…

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It appears that preliminary discussions are underway regarding a potential boxing match between Francis Ngannou and Tyson Fury.

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In an interview with TMZ Sports, the former UFC heavyweight champion revealed that he has engaged in talks with Fury’s representatives regarding a future fight.

“I have talked to somebody, some of his advisors,” Ngannou said. “They are working on a fight with [Oleksandr] Usyk on April. So, until then, he will not be free. But I’m just trying to see if we can have an agreement before that fight.

“That will also give me some time to get prepared for a boxing fight. So I have no problem with the timeline that I’m expecting, that I hope will be sometime in June, July, which is doable. So let’s see. I think it’s too early to make a conclusion. It’s too early to say anything about it but it’s definitely something that we’re looking into.”

Ngannou was released from his UFC contract earlier this year …

Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC Credit: Getty/UFC

Ex-UFC flyweight contender Askar Askarov has signed with Absolute Championship Akhmat.

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The promotion announced the news on Saturday. Askarov asked to be released from his UFC contract late last year, and the Las Vegas-based organization granted that request. A date for his ACA debut is currently unknown.

“Due to my return being delayed due to medical reasons and being my last fight under my contract, I asked UFC to release me,” Askarov wrote on Instagram last October. “To which, I received a positive response. First, let's put our health in order, and then we will see what and how.”

Askarov suffered his first loss in 16 professional outings last March, when he dropped a unanimous verdict to Kai Kara France at UFC on ESPN 33. He wouldn’t compete again in 2022, as he pulled out of proposed fights against the likes of Brandon Royval and Alex Perez.

The 30-year-old Dagestani is a form…

The Professional Fighters League welcomed a promising new talent into the fold on Week 1 of the PFL Challenger Series: Thad Jean.

Fast-twitch punches, well-disguised kicks and opportunistic ground-and-pound carried the unbeaten 24-year-old prospect to a unanimous decision over current Cage Fury Fighting Championships titleholder Eric Alequin in their three-round welterweight showcase on Friday at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. Jean (5-0, 1-0 PFL) swept the scorecards with identical 30-27 marks from the cageside judiciary.

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Alequin (7-1, 0-1 PFL) connected with a few kicks to the lead leg and body but was otherwise ineffective. Jean decked him with a right hand at the end of the first round and flurried with punches for a potential finish until the bell sounded. With that, the tone was set. Jean dropped the Kill Cliff Fight Club representative with another right in Round 2, then picked his spots in the third. There, he controlled the center of…

[embedded content] The Ultimate Fighting Championship has built an entire pay-per-view main card without revealing its location.

On Friday, UFC President Dana White – who was caught on video slapping his wife on Dec. 31, 2022 – announced on multiple platforms the main card lineup of UFC 287. The event will go down on April 8, and there is still no official destination on the books although an international UFC social media page wrote Miami, Florida. The main attraction will see Alex Pereira (7-1) put his middleweight belt on the line against ex-champ Israel Adesanya (23-2) in a rematch of their shocking UFC 281 battle.

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“Poatan” has been a man possessed since breaking into the UFC in late 2021. It took the Brazilian a mere three wins to get a crack at gold, although it came against former kickboxing rival Adesanya, where Pereira held two victories. In the fifth round, Pereira struck and put Adesanya away, scoring the first stoppage of “The Last Style…

We're happy to announce Bella Mir as the UFC's first ever NIL ambassador!

Mir is currently a freshman at the University of Iowa (@TheIowaHawkeyes) and a member of @IowaW_Wrestling 🤼‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/7JCEQd1WqT

— UFC (@ufc) January 27, 2023 At just 20 years of age, Ultimate Fighting Championship hopeful Bella Mir is already making serious waves.

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Per a press release from the UFC on Friday, the organization has signed Mir (3-0) to be an “NIL ambassador,” which will pay her for her name, image and likeness rights. The NCAA ban on NIL deals with athletes was recently lifted, and Mir is the first to come from the UFC. This follows a major sponsorship arrangement from the UFC to the Iowa Hawkeyes wrestling program, in which Mir is a member of the women’s wrestling team.

UFC head Dana White spoke highly of Mir and of this new agreement, saying, “Bella was destined to become a member of the UFC family her entire life, and I’…

A small car is no match for Ultimate Fighting Championship star Conor McGregor.

On Friday afternoon, McGregor was out for a ride by himself on his bicycle in Ireland. When riding around a corner, a white car came around and struck him. McGregor did not report any serious injuries, and he showed a tear in his pants. The damage to the bike was too substantial to use it to go home, so he asked the driver, named Nick, to bring him home. While amped up from the accident, an otherwise cogent McGregor seemed in good spirits, telling the driver, “all good, mate, all good,” as he documented what happened.

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“Got a bang of a car just now from behind,” McGregor wrote on Instagram. “A sun trap, the driver couldn’t see me. Full speed straight thru me. Thank you God, it wasn’t my time. Thank you wrestling and judo also. Having an awareness on the landing saved my life.”

In the video, pieces of the bike and his equipment lay scattered on the ground, including a …

I’ll be a guest Celebrity Judge on the @PFLMMA Challenger Series this Friday night. Tune in on @fuboSports Network at 9pm ET and help me decide which fighter deserves a PFL contract #PFLonFuboTV pic.twitter.com/52klQjnBb3

— Wiz Khalifa (@wizkhalifa) January 24, 2023 Week 7 of Professional Fighters League’s 2023 season of the Challenger Series has found its eight participants.

A PFL press release on Thursday announced the four matches that will held on the seventh week of PFL Challenger Series. The 205ers will battle it out in the Universal Studios of Orlando, Florida, on March 10. The event will air on Fubo TV, and according to an organizational official, it will be free to watch like every other CS cards this season. The main event sees ex- Ultimate Fighting Championship talent Impa Kasanganay (10-3) move up to 205 pounds to take on Brave Combat Federation vet Osama ElSeady (8-2).

The other three bouts on the lineup for the seventh 202…

Fight Card Update: Mostafa Nada will not weigh in. Kendly St. Louis, who was on site to corner Thad Jean, steps up and will replace Nada against Nick Alley in a 175 lb catchweight bout.

⚖️ 174.4 lbs.

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St. Louis vs Alley is official#PFLonFubo pic.twitter.com/Elv3wrJ7tk — PFL (@PFLMMA) January 26, 2023 The stage is set for the Professional Fighters League's first event of 2023, which is a Challenger Series show focused on welterweight hopefuls.

Main event fighters Lucas Barbosa and Itso Babulaidze had no issue making weight, with Babulaidze (2-0) looking to stay undefeated against the 2-1 jiu-jitsu specialist. However, there was one last-minute change to the four-fight card, as Mostafa Rashed Neda was replaced by Kendly St. Louis. Due to the late-notice swap, St. Louis vs. Nick Alley transformed into a 175-pound catchweight contest rather than at welterweight as previously booked.

PFL Challenger Series Week 1: Wel…

Conor McGregor’s UFC return could potentially be tied to “The Ultimate Fighter.”

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In an Instagram post on Wednesday, the former UFC two-division champion said that he has been offered a chance to coach on the reality show for a second time. McGregor previously was a coach on “TUF 22” opposite Urijah Faber in 2015.

“This is a snap from the original ‘Ultimate Fighter’ house where I coached vs Urijah Faber,” McGregor wrote. “This photo was just before the show [though]. It was right before I won my first world title, beating Urijah teammate Chad Mendes … I then went on to coach the famous fight show straight after the fight. With a big black eye and a gash, my tricolor, and my new and first ever UFC gold belt, I waltzed into the notorious fight gym in Las Vegas. The slickest suits and shouts the show had ever seen before. On top of the silverware. And I coached my team to victory. Crazy. Some journey.

“I have just been offered to coach this role …