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Benoit St. Denis submitted Luan Santiago via submission (arm-triangle choke) in the second round. #BRAVECF49 #Superfights pic.twitter.com/8H1LARqXg4

— BRAVE Combat Federation (@bravemmaf) March 25, 2021 Brave Combat Federation's Benoit St. Denis may be someone to watch out for going forward.

The Brave CF 49 main event saw former 155-pound titleholder Luan Santiago (15-5) taking on St. Denis (7-0, 1 NC) at the company’s super lightweight category of 165 pounds. Santiago adopted a cautious game plan as he preferred to force his opponent to catch him as he moved close to the fence. St. Denis dragged the action down to the ground with an effective single leg takedown, and he easily controlled his opponent while on top. After a few scrambles, the Frenchman took his opponent’s back and sought after a rear-naked choke, only to run out of time.

In the second frame, St. Denis took his opponent down again as soon as the round began. While Santiago…

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. For the first time since 2019, promising Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight prospect Damir Ismagulov will step into the cage. On Thursday, AG Fight reported that Ismagulov (19-1) will be returning to the Octagon on May 15. The Russian lightweight will be competing at UFC 262 at the Toyota Center in Houston, where he will take on debutant Rafael Alves (19-9). This 155-pound pairing has since been confirmed by Ismagulov on his Instagram.

Ismagulov has not suffered a defeat since 2015, where he dropped a decision to Ramazan Esenbaev. Since then, he has rattled off 14 victories, including three inside the UFC cage. He has yet to finish an opponent in his UFC run, with a trio of unanimous verdicts against Alex Gorgees, Joel Alvarez and Thiago Moises in the span of about nine months. Before his signing in 2018, Ismagulov l…

One of the high-profile free agent acquisitions for Bellator MMA has his debut fight set.

MMA DNA first announced on Wednesday that Brett Johns (17-2) will be setting foot in the Bellator cage for the first time against fellow bantamweight Matheus Mattos (12-2-1). The two will toe the line at an upcoming Bellator event on May 21, which will likely be titled Bellator 259. The card will be held at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., like its other events inside the “Fightsphere” bubble. A promotion official was unable to confirm the pairing to Sherdog on Thursday, but Johns did on his Twitter page.

Johns left the Ultimate Fighting Championship on a two-fight win streak with victories over Tony Gravely and Montel Jackson in 2020. “The Pikey” competed seven times inside the Octagon, only dropping decisions to top-10 talents Aljamain Sterling and Pedro Munhoz in 2018 along the way. The Welshmen completed his UFC contract and decided to sign with Bellator a few mont…

BREAKING: Pro Football Hall of Famer @raylewis Joins PFL's Newly Formed Athlete Advisory Board!

— PFL MMA (@ProFightLeague) March 25, 2021 In an effort to grow the influence of both the sport and the Professional Fighters League individually, the promotion is building an all-star athlete advisory board.

On Thursday, the tournament-based organization announced in a press release that it was creating an Athlete Advisory Board. The goal of this, per the PFL, is to “identify and recruit new talent as well as further evolve the PFL’s fighter-first culture and mission.” It is unclear how this board will achieve this, as the specific duties other than media obligations such as “behind-the-scenes access” have not yet been defined. Two key members of this board have been announced: Pro Football Hall of Famer Ray Lewis, and Ultimate Fighting Championship Hall of Famer Randy Couture.

All-time great linebacker Lewis is not completely unfamiliar with …

The UFC 261 card appears to be nearly complete, as the Las Vegas-based promotion confirmed multiple matchups for the April 24 card on Wednesday.

The lineup will include a rescheduled welterweight showdown between Alex Oliveira and Randy Brown, which was originally slated for UFC Fight Night 186 on Feb. 27 before Brown exited the card.

The following bouts, which may have been reported elsewhere, were also officially announced for UFC 261: Karl Roberson vs. Brendan Allen at middleweight; Danaa Batgerel vs. Kevin Natividad at bantamweight; Qileng Aori vs. Jeff Molina at bantamweight; Johnny Munoz Jr. vs. Jamey Simmons at bantamweight; Rodrigo Vargas vs. Zhu Rong at lightweight; Dwight Grant vs. Stefan Sekulic at welterweight and Na Liang vs. Ariane Carnelossi at strawweight.

UFC 261 takes place at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena and will allow fans to attend at full capacity at the Jacksonville, Fla., venue. In the main event, Kamaru Usman will defend his welterweig…

Ryan Hall will return to action against Ilia Topuria in a featherweight matchup on July 10.

Adjara Sport first brought word of the booking and Topuria later confirmed it on his Instagram account. The event, which is expected to be UFC 264, does not currently have a location or headliner.

Hall hasn’t competed since 2019 after being forced to pull out of proposed bouts against Ricardo Lamas and Dan Ige due to injury. The grappling ace last appeared at UFC Fight Night 155, when he outpointed Darren Elkins in July 2019. He also owns victories over B.J. Penn, Gray Maynard and Artem Lobov in UFC competition.

A native of Alicante, Spain, the 24-year-old Topuria is unbeaten in 10 professional outings thus far. “El Matador” kicked off his promotional tenure with a decision win over Youssef Zalal at UFC Fight Night 179 last October before knocking out Damon Jackson in the opening stanza at UFC on ESPN 19 in December.

Miesha Tate will come out of retirement and lock horns with Marion Reneau at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on July 17.

The former UFC bantamweight queen confirmed the news to ESPN on Wednesday. Reneau, meanwhile, confirmed that it will be the last fight of her MMA career. The promotion has not announced location or headliner for the card, but it is expected to be a UFC Fight Night event.

Tate announced her retirement following a unanimous decision loss to Raquel Pennington at UFC 205 in November 2016. She claimed 135-pound gold with a submission of Holly Holm at UFC 196 but relinquished the title one bout later, falling to Amanda Nunes by rear-naked choke at UFC 200. Her rivalry with Ronda Rousey, which began in Strikeforce and continued in the UFC, helped give women a bigger stage in MMA.

Since her retirement, Tate has served as an executive and ambassadar for Singapore-based MMA promotion One Championship. According to the report, the UFC has the ab…

Ronaldo Souza will lock horns with Andre Muniz at UFC 262.

Combate was first to report the middleweight bout. UFC 262 takes place at the Toyota Center in Houston and is headlined by a lightweight championship clash between Michael Chandler and Charles Oliveira. As of now, fans will be allowed to attend the event at full capacity.

Souza has fallen on hard times of late, losing four of his last five Octagon appearances. After five-round decision defeats in headlining bouts against Jan Blachowicz and Jack Hermansson, “Jacare” was knocked out by Kevin Holland in the opening stanza at UFC 256 in his most recent outing this past December. The 41-year-old Brazilian’s last victory came in November 2018, when he scored a knockout of Chris Weidman at UFC 230.

The 31-year-old Muniz earned a pair of victories on Dana White’s Contender Series before joining the Las Vegas-based promotion. “Sergipano” then outpointed Antonio Arroyo in his Octagon debut at UFC Fight Night 164 …

A flyweight matchup pitting Tim Elliott against Su Mudaerji is on tap for the UFC’s June 26 card.

MMAjunkie.com was first to report the booking. The event does not yet have an official location or headliner.

A former 125-pound title challenger, Elliott is coming off back-to-back unanimous decision triumphs over Ryan Benoit and Jordan Espinosa. The 34-year-old is 6-9 across two UFC stints and 17-11-1 as a professional overall.

China’s Mudaerji has won three straight bouts since being submitted by Louis Smolka in his promotional debut at UFC Fight Night 141. Most recently, “The Tibetan Eagle” outpointed Zarrukh Adashev at UFC on ESPN 20 on Jan. 20.

The UFC 260 card will not look anything like it was originally intended to look, but that’s normal in this day and age.

The promotion recently confirmed multiple updates to Saturday’s card, which will take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Two scheduled women’s strawweight bouts – Hannah Goldy vs. Jessica Penne and Randa Markos vs. Luana Pinheiro – have been moved to different events as a result of COVID-19 protocols. Goldy vs. Penne is now set for UFC on ESPN 22 on April 17, while Markos vs. Pinheiro will go down at UFC Fight Night “Reyes vs. Prochazka” on May 1.

Meanwhile, William Knight has been pulled from a proposed light heavyweight matchup against Alonzo Menifield and will instead face Da Un Jung at UFC on ABC 2 on April 10. Knight is a replacement for Shamil Gamzatov, who couldn’t fight Jung due to visa issues. Menifield will remain on the UFC 260 lineup and lock horns with Dana White’s Contender Series alum Fabio Cherant.

UFC 260 is headlined by a hea…

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While things are beginning to fall into place for most of the top-ranked competitors throughout the UFC’s lightweight division, Justin Gaethje remains in limbo.

With Khabib Nurmagomedov’s retirement finally official, the promotion announced that Charles Oliveira would face Michael Chandler for the vacant 155-pound belt at UFC 262 in May. Meanwhile, a trilogy between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor appears imminent, and Beneil Dariush will lock horns with Tony Ferguson on the UFC 262 undercard.

At the moment, Gaethje doesn’t seem to have a clear direction in the weight class.

“Who knows, man,” Gaethje told Full Reptile. “I can’t talk about it a lot right now—I’m sure me talking about it [in the past] is the reason I’m here. Who knows? Maybe I pissed someone off. I don’t know.

“All I know is since I was 12, 13 years old, I listened to Dana White do interviews and explain what he wanted in a f…

Impressive bantamweight contender Magomed Magomedov will square off against C.J. Hamilton on the Bellator 255 undercard.

Sherdog.com confirmed the booking with a promotion official following an initial report from Cageside Press. Hamilton replaces Jared Scoggins, who was forced to withdraw from the fight. Two other bouts were confirmed for the Bellator 255 prelims: Mukhamad Berkhamov vs. Herman Terrado at welterweight and Fabio Aguiar vs. Khalid Murtazaliev at middleweight.

Bellator 255 takes place at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., on April 2 and is headlined by a featherweight grand prix semifinal between reigning champion Patricio Freire and Emmanuel Sanchez. The card will air on Showtime.

A former Absolute Championship Berkut title holder, Magomedov made his promotional debut on Dec. 10, when he scored a dominant three-round verdict against Matheus Mattos at Bellator 254 to run his career mark to 17-1. Magomedov also notably owns a victory over former UF…

Impressive bantamweight contender Magomed Magomedov will square off against C.J. Hamilton on the Bellator 255 undercard.

Sherdog.com confirmed the booking with a promotion official following an initial report from Cageside Press. Hamilton replaces Jared Scoggins, who was forced to withdraw from the fight. Two other bouts were confirmed for the Bellator 255 prelims: Mukhamad Berkhamov vs. Herman Terrado at welterweight and Fabio Aguiar vs. Khalid Murtazaliev at middleweight.

Bellator 255 takes place at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., on April 2 and is headlined by a featherweight grand prix semifinal between reigning champion Patricio Freire and Emmanuel Sanchez. The card will air on Showtime.

A former Absolute Championship Berkut title holder, Magomedov made his promotional debut on Dec. 10, when he scored a dominant three-round verdict against Matheus Mattos at Bellator 254 to run his career mark to 17-1. Magomedov also notably owns a victory over former UF…

If Frank Mir is going to showcase his skills in the Sweet Science on April 17, it won’t be against Antonio Tarver.

The Georgia Athletic Commission denied Tarver a license to fight Mir on the undercard of the Triller Promotions event that is headlined by a boxing match between former Bellator champion Ben Askren and social media personality Jake Paul. ESPN was first to report the news.

According to commission executive director Steve Woodruff, Tarver was denied a license because state bylaws dictate that anyone 50 or older must have 10 professional fights on their record with in the last 10 years, "including at least four professional matches or contests of boxing in the immediately preceding four years.” The 52-year-old Tarver has fought just five times in 10 years and not at all in the past six. Tarver won multiple champions at light heavyweight over the course of his career while compiling a 31-6-1 record.

Triller has proposed former IBF cruiserweight champio…

Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 21 main card attracted an audience of 721,000 viewers to ESPN, according to ShowBuzz Daily.

That’s the top figure for a UFC on ESPN card in 20201, surpassing both UFC on ESPN 20 (244,000 viewers) and UFC on ESPN 19 (658,000 viewers). The event didn’t begin on ESPN until 10:25 p.m. ET due to the NCAA wrestling championships. As a result, the main card began on ESPN2 at 10 p.m. ET and averaged 512,000 viewers for the first portion.

UFC on ESPN 21 took place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and saw Derek Brunson defeat Kevin Holland via unanimous decision in the evening’s middleweight main event. The overall main draw wasn’t large on star power and also had the disadvantage of going head-to-head with the NCAA basketball tournament on Saturday night, which dominated ratings with games on multiple networks.

The UFC on ESPN 21 prelims averaged 438,000 viewers on ESPN2. That portion of the card featured a women’s bantamweight matchup between Macy C…

A matchup of former flyweight title challengers is in the works for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on July 10.

According to MMAFighting.com, Jennifer Maia will square off against Jessica Eye at the UFC Fight Night card, which does not have an official headliner or location.

Maia last appeared at UFC 255, where she dropped a five-round verdict to Valentina Shevchenko in a 125-pound title bout on Nov. 21. The former Invicta FC title holder is 3-3 in UFC competition, with victories over Joanne Calderwood, Roxanne Modafferi and Alexis Davis to her credit.

Eye, who was knocked out by a Shevchenko head kick at UFC 238, has lost three of her last four Octagon appearances overall. Most recently, the Ohio native suffered a unanimous decision defeat to Joanne Calderwood at UFC 257 on Jan. 23.

Henry Corrales will square off with Keith Lee, the younger brother of UFC talent Kevin Lee, on the Bellator 258 undercard.

Promotion officials confirmed the pairing to Sherdog.com on Tuesday, along with two other bouts set for the preliminary draw: Johnny Eblen vs. Daniel Madrid at middleweight and Weber Almeida vs. Johnny Soto at featherweight.

Bellator 258 takes place on May 7 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., and is headlined by a bantamweight title tilt between Juan Archuleta and Sergio Pettis. The card will air on Showtime.

Corrales snapped a two-bout skid with a split-decision triumph over Brandon Girtz at Bellator 250 this past October. The former King of the Cage champion is 6-5 during his tenure with the California-based organization.

After besting Shawn Bunch and Vinicius Zani in his first two promotional appearances, Lee dropped a unanimous verdict against Raufeon Stots at Bellator 253 on Nov. 19. The 24-year-old Extreme Couture repres…

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An amateur mixed martial arts event got out of control in Florida this past Saturday.

TMZ Sports obtained video of the scene, which included mutliple fights outside the cage at “RIZE Fighting Championship: Battle of Warriors” at the Bamboo Room in Lake Worth, Fla. As the melee continued, footage showed a man reaching into a woman's purse, pulling out a handgun and firing it into the air at least once. Based on the video, there appear to be fans in the balcony area just above where the man fires the gun.

“Who knows what his thoughts were, if it was to diffuse the situation, but you can’t do that in the United States, especially at an event packed with fans, with people, you can’t shoot guns in the air,” Rize promoter Armando Gonzalez told NBC Miami.

According to the NBC Miami report, the fighting outside the cage initially began because people didn’t like the officiating in one particular bout. Read more about Video: Gun Fired in Air During Melee at Amateur MMA Event in Florida

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Tsuyoshi Sudario turned heads with quick knockout of Kazushi Miyamoto in their heavyweight bout at Rizin 27, but it’s what happened after the stoppage that has come back to haunt the sumo wrestler.

The Japanese promotion released a statement Tuesday announcing that Sudario has been fined for continuing to throw punches at his opponent after referee Ryogaku Wada attempted to restrain him. Tensions flared after the incident as both corners entered the ring. As a result, Sudario has been fined 25 percent of his purse.

“The incident occurred after Sudario finished Miyamoto with a promotional record-breaking knockout,” the statement read. “Referee Ryogaku Wada waved off the fight in [eight] seconds after Sudario landed a clean right hand to Miyamoto’s jaw. Sudario refused to stop attacking after the official stoppage. Sudario’s corner, Enson Inoue entered the ring and helped restrain Sudario, whereupon Miyamo…

Coming off an impressive sequence of eight straight wins, Charles Oliveira was recently confirmed to face ex-Bellator champion Michael Chandler for the vacant lightweight crown at UFC 262 on May 15.

Shortly thereafter, Oliveira revealed to Sherdog.com the curious manner in which he received the most important news of his fighting career. After Khabib Nurmagomedov confirmed his retirement and rumors of a lightweight title bout between Justin Gaethje and Chandler became prevalent, Oliveira decided to spend some time relaxing on his ranch.

"When some fan asked me what I thought about that fight, I answered it would be a great fight between two killers. I wanted to fight for the belt, so once I didn’t have that fight confirmed I decided to go on Thursday night to my ranch, where the telephone just doesn't work. But my father had to go to the city to buy some stuff and saw many calls from my trainer, Diego Lima, and told me about that.

“At that moment I knew Diego w…

After a dominant victory against Drew Dober at UFC 259, Islam Makhachev is one of the fastest-rising contenders in the lightweight division.

Makhachev, who has won seven consecutive fights within the Las Vegas-based promotion, has been tabbed by former 155-pound king Khabib Nurmagomedov as a future champion. The 29-year-old Dagestani called for a showdown with Tony Ferguson after UFC 259, but with “El Cucuy” now booked against Beneil Dariush, has turned his attention to other potential opponents.

One of those is Rafael dos Anjos, who Makhachev was supposed to face at UFC 254 in October and at UFC Fight Night 182 in November before the bout fell through. Dos Anjos recently said he would only face Makhachev if a victory granted him a rematch with Nurmagomedov, whose retirement was only officially recognized by the UFC this past week.

“I don’t know why his opinion changed so quickly,” Makhachev said in a video interview (translation via RT Sport). “He won a fight a…

Kenny Florian will be on the Professional Fighters League broadcast team for the promotion’s 2021 season.

The organization announced the news via release on Tuesday. After a 17-bout career in the UFC, Florian served as an analyst and color commentator for the Las Vegas-based promotion for several years. Florian will work alongside UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture and play-by-play commentator Sean O’Connell on the PFL broadcast team.

“I’m very excited to be a part of the PFL family and this season looks to be the best one yet,” said Florian. “Breaking down MMA fights and high level martial arts techniques is what I enjoy most, and I’m elated to be a part of the tremendous commentary team to get a chance to do just that.”

Florian rose to prominence on Season 1 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” where he lost to Diego Sanchez at the reality show’s finale. The Massachusetts native went on to challenge for titles at both lightweight and featherweight but never captured UFC go…

A potential flyweight title eliminator bout is set for Bellator 256, as Liz Carmouche will lock horns with Vanessa Porto at Bellator 256.

Fansided was first to report the pairing. Bellator 256 takes place on April 9 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., and is headlined by a light heavyweight grand prix clash between Ryan Bader and Lyoto Machida. The card will air on Showtime.

Carmouche has challenged for titles at flyweight and bantamweight in the UFC, falling to Valentina Shevchenko and Ronda Rousey, respectively. “Girl-Rilla” was successful in her debut with the California-based promotion, as she tapped out DeAnna Bennett in the third round at Bellator 246.

A former Invicta title holder, Porto will be fighting for the first time since November 2019. The 37-year-old Sao Paulo native enters the matchup with Carmouche on a four-bout winning streak. She owns a 22-8 professional mark that includes wins over the likes of Pearl Gonzalez, Roxanne Modafferi, Ta…

Montserrat Ruiz and Cheyanne Buys could be out for up to six months following their main card matchup at UFC on ESPN 21.

Ruiz, who earned a unanimous decision over Buys in their strawweight clash, must have an MRI on her left knee and right shoulder and if she isn’t cleared, will be sidelined until Sept. 17. At a minimum, she is suspended until April 20 with no contact until April 11. Buys needs a right elbow X-ray and doctor clearance or she will be suspended until Sept. 17. She also has a minimum suspension until April 20 with no contact until April 11.

A full list of medical suspensions from Saturday’s event were released to mixedmartialarts.com. UFC on ESPN 21 took place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and saw Derek Brunson take a unanimous verdict against Kevin Holland in the evening’s middleweight main event. Brunson is suspended until April 20 with no contact until April 11 due to a laceration on his right eyebrow, while Holland is suspended until April 11 with …