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STILL UNBEATEN.

Khizriev wastes no time - no energy at #DWCS.

[ Watch LIVE on #ESPNPlus ] pic.twitter.com/7PDkNUHK8W — UFC (@ufc) September 9, 2020

Kyle Daukaus will meet Aliaskhab Khizriev in a middleweight bout at UFC Fight Night on April 10.

Promotion officials recently announced the pairing through social media. UFC Fight Night takes place at an as yet to be confirmed location and is headlined by a 185-pound showdown between Darren Till and Marvin Vettori.

After suffering his first professional defeat to Brendan Allen at UFC on ESPN 12, Daukaus rebounded in his sophomore promotional outing, outpointing Dustin Stoltzfus at UFC 255 this past November. The former Cage Fury Fighting Championships titlist owns a 10-1 career mark that also includes a victory on Season 3 of Dana White’s Contender Series.

Khizriev will make his UFC debut with a 13-0 record. He earned a contract with the Las Vegas-based promotion by submitt…

UFC Fight Night 187 is down another bout, as a heavyweight tilt between Ben Rothwell and Philipe Lins has been pulled from Saturday’s card.

Fightful was first to report the news. According to MMAFighting.com, an undisclosed injury resulted in the removal of the bout from the UFC Fight Night 187 lineup, but it is expected to be rebooked for a future event.

UFC Fight Night 187 takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a welterweight clash between Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad. The card will stream in its entirety on ESPN+.

The 39-year-old Rothwell had a two-bout winning streak snapped in his most recently outing, when he dropped a unanimous decision against Marcin Tybura at UFC Fight Night 179 this past October.

After winning the 2018 Professional Fighters League heavyweight championship, Lins has struggled in the Octagon, falling to Andrei Arlovski and Tanner Boser in his first two promotional appearances.

A featherweight pairing pitting Daniel Weichel against Pedro Carvalho has been targeted for Bellator 257.

Sherdog.com confirmed with a source close to the situation that the matchup is in the works following an initial report from MMAFighting.com. Both Weichel and Carvalho have agreed to the bout, but contracts have not been signed.

Bellator 257 takes place at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., on April 16 and features a pair of light heavyweight grand prix quarterfinals: Vadim Nemkov vs. Phil Davis and Yoel Romero vs. Anthony Johnson. The card will air on Showtime.

Weichel has lost three of his last four promotional appearances, a stretch that includes split-decision setbacks against Patricio Freire and Goiti Yamauchi as well as a five-round unanimous verdict to Emmanuel Sanchez in the quarterfinals of the 145-pound tournament. The 36-year-old German also posted a decision win over Saul Rogers in the opening round of the bracket during that time.

After s…

A featherweight clash pitting Ricardo Ramos against Zubaira Tukhugov will not take place at UFC Fight Night 187 as originally planned.

According to an initial report by MMA journalist Igor Lazorin, Tukhugov was forced to pull out of the fight due to injury. MMAFighting.com has since confirmed that Ramos will not remain on the card after the promotion was unable to find a replacement opponent for him.

UFC Fight Night 187 takes place on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and is headlined by a welterweight tilt between Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad. The card will stream in its entirety on ESPN+.

Tukhugov split a pair of bouts in 2020, defeating Kevin Aguilar via first-round TKO at UFC Fight Night 168 before dropping a split decision to Hakeem Dawodu at UFC 253.

Ramos has been victorious in five of his seven Octagon appearances but is coming off a first-round stoppage loss to Lerone Murphy at UFC on ESPN 13 this past July.

Holly Holm has confirmed her withdrawal from proposed May 8 bout against Julianna Pena.

In a video on Instagram, the former bantamweight queen revealed that she was diagnosed with a kidney condition called hydronephrosis. According to kidney.org, “hydronephrosis is the swelling of a kidney due to a build-up of urine. It happens when urine cannot drain out from the kidney to the bladder from a blockage or obstruction. Hydronephrosis can occur in one or both kidneys.”

Holm said that she expects to make a relatively quick recovery and hopes to have the Pena fight rebooked by the summer.

“Last Wednesday I had super abdominal pains, and I went to urgent care. It’s been something kind of reoccurring but hasn’t driven me to urgent care until last Wednesday,” Holm said. “Lo and behold I have hydronephrosis, which is where the kidney does not drain to the bladder correctly.

“So they admitted me that night to get a little procedure done, to get a stent put in ther…

Jan Blachowicz may want a minimum six-month rest following his light heavyweight title defense at UFC 259, but opponent Israel Adesanya could potentially join him in being sidelined that long for different reasons.

“The Last Stylebender” must have clearance on left foot and left ankle X-rays or he will be suspended until Sept. 3. At a minimum, Adesanya is suspended until April 21 with no contact until April 6. Blachowicz, meanwhile, is suspended until April 6 with no contact until March 28.

A full list of medical suspensions from this past Saturday’s event was released to mixedmartialarts.com. UFC 259 took place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and saw Blachowicz take a five-round verdict against Adesanya in the evening’s headliner.

Meanwhile, Aljamain Sterling, who claimed the vacant bantamweight title via disqualification victory after absorbing an illegal knee from Petr Yan, is suspended until May 6 with no contact until April 21. Yan emerged with a clean bill of…

Two of Professional Fighters League’s biggest stars will anchor the organization’s third regular season card on May 6.

The promotion announced Tuesday that recent free-agent signee Fabricio Werdum will square off against Renan Ferreira in the evening’s heavyweight headliner, while 2019 women’s lightweight champ Kayla Harrison will face Mariana Morais in the co-main event. The card will feature heavyweights and women’s lightweights.

PFL 3 takes place at Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, N.J., in a ”state-of-the-art” bubble environment, with fighters required to check in 17 days prior to their bouts. The main card airs on ESPN2 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, with prelims streaming on ESPN+ at 5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT.

In the other two main card matchups, 2019 heavyweight champ Ali Isaev will face Hatef Moeil, while Genah Fabian will lock horns with Laura Sanchez at 155 pounds. Meanwhile, six bouts will comprise the ESPN+ prelims: Mohammed Usman vs. Brandon Sayles …

A women’s flyweight clash pitting Veta Arteaga against Desiree Yanez has been added to the Bellator 257 preliminary card.

Sherdog.com confirmed the pairing with a promotion official on Monday following an initial report from MMAjunkie.com. The fight was initially slated for Bellator 250 in October, but Arteaga was forced to withdraw on the day of the event due to a positive COVID-19 test.

Bellator 257 takes place on April 16 at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut and is headlined by a light heavyweight grand prix quarterfinal matchup between reigning 205-pound champion Vadim Nemkov and Phil Davis. In the co-main event, Yoel Romero will lock horns with Anthony Johnson in another light heavyweight quarterfinal. The evening’s main card will air on Showtime.

Arteaga is coming off back-to-back losses against Alejandra Lara and Ilima-Lei Macfarlance in 2019. The 33-year-old Combat Fitness product is 5-4 over the course of her professional tenure, with all but…

While it appears that the particulars of Jan Blachowicz’s next light heavyweight title defense are already set, it could be some time before the Polish champion returns to the Octagon.

After a five-round unanimous decision victory over middleweight king in the UFC 259 headliner on Saturday, Blachowicz laid out a desired timeframe for his next promotional appearance.

“[I want a] short break – minimum half-year break,” Blachowicz said. “I want to spend some time with my family. I am a father. My child was just born and I don’t spend any time with him because I have to prepare for my fight. If he wants to wait, (Glover Teixeira) will be my next opponent.”

That means the former KSW title holder wouldn’t compete again until September at the earliest. Blachowicz’s first child, Jan. Jr., was born in December, and the fighter has mostly been in camp preparing for Adesanya since then. That signals an even longer layoff for Teixeira, who UFC president Dana White said was “100 pe…

#TrillerFightClub @jakepaul vs @Benaskren April 17 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. PPV tickets now available on https://t.co/ePBwAGe5aj pic.twitter.com/ys1l2xm3od

— TRILLER (@triller) March 8, 2021

The pay-per-view boxing match between Ben Askren and Jake Paul officially has a location and a price point.

Triller Fight Club announced Monday that the April 17 bout will take place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons. Askren vs. Paul will cost $49.99 on pay-per-view and will be available via iNDemand in North American, while Fite TV will handle distribution internationally. International price points may vary. The four-hour card begins at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, while the pay-per-view kicks off at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.

There will be no ticket sales to the public, but a limited number of guests and fans will be invited to attend the event. The card will also reportedly included a showdown between former UFC heavywe…

Megan Anderson was overmatched from the outset against Amanda Nunes in the UFC 259 co-headliner.

The Aussie was rocked by a pair of hard overhand rights early and never recovered. After failing on a takedown attempt, Anderson absorbed a barrage of punches and hammerfists before Nunes transitioned to a reverse triangle armbar to elicit a tapout 2:03 into Round 1.

Anderson landed just two significant strikes in the featherweight championship bout before meeting her demise. The former Invicta FC title holder released a brief statement on Twitter following her defeat.

“This game has the highest of highs and the lowest of lows,” Anderson wrote on Twitter. “This was the one we wanted to win but it's the fight game. We’ll be back.”

This game has the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. This was the one we wanted to win but it's the fight game.

We'll be back

— Megan Anderson (@MeganA_mma) March 7, 2021

Anderson completed her …

Islam Makhachev lived up to the hype at UFC 259.

The American Kickboxing Academy product was suffocating against fellow lightweight contender Drew Dober, as he grounded his opponent in all three rounds, advanced position with ease and found openings for timely ground-and-pound. Makhachev put the finishing touches on his victory by submitting his adversary with arm-triangle choke from half guard in Round 3 for his seventh consecutive UFC triumph.

Dober, who entered the matchup having won six of his last seven Octagon appearances, never had a chance to be competitive. After more than a year on the sidelines due to multiple fight cancellations, Makhachev was happy to return to the win column.

“2020 was a crazy year, all my fights got canceled. That’s why I’m very happy to be here now and get the finish. I’m very happy,” Makhachev said.

“The finish is always very important … I tried to finish him in the first round, but Dober is a very strong guy. He has like …

Antonio Carlos Jr. is a late addition to the Professional Fighters League roster for the organization’s 2021 campaign.

ESPN was the first to report that Carlos Jr. had signed with PFL, where he will compete in the light heavyweight division. The 30-year-old Brazilian went 7-5 with one no contest while primarily competing at 185 pounds in the UFC.

Carlos Jr. won Season 3 of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” at heavyweight, defeating Vitor Miranda at the show’s finale. After dropping a unanimous decision to Patrick Cummins in a light heavyweight bout at UFC Fight Night 58, Carlos Jr. dropped to middleweight for the rest of his promotional tenure. “Cara de Sapato” went on to earn notable victories against the likes of Tim Boetsch, Jack Marshman and Marvin Vettori.

Carlos Jr. was released in February shortly after a decision loss to Brad Tavares — his third consecutive defeat — at UFC 257.

Holly Holm has been forced to pull out of a UFC Fight Night clash with Julianna Pena on May 8.

Pena herself initially brought word of Holm’s exit from the card via Twitter on Saturday night. According to a report from the Albuquerque Journal Holm canceled a boxing commentary gig on Friday involving a Claressa Shields fight due to a “nagging physical issue.” The nature of the ailment was not disclosed, but apparently it was enough to also prevent her from facing Pena in approximately two months.

Love watching these title fights. One in particular...as I’ve just been informed that #HollyHolm is injured and has pulled from our scheduled bout May 8. I wish her a full recovery #ufc259

— Julianna Peña (@VenezuelanVixen) March 7, 2021

It’s unclear if Pena will remain on the card, but “The Venezuelan Vixen” didn’t hesitate to call for a matchup with two-division champion Amanda Nunes, who shellacked Megan Anderson to defend her featherweight b…

Israel Adesanya found out just how difficult it is to become a two-division champion in the UFC.

His bid to become the fifth simultaneous champ-champ in promotion history came up short in the UFC 259 headliner, as he dropped a unanimous decision to reigning 205-pound king Jan Blachowicz at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Not only was Adesanya denied another piece of championship hardware, but the possibility of a lucrative grudge match with Jon Jones has diminished considerably – at least for now.

“Listen, he’s the middleweight champion. He doesn’t get the light heavyweight title, he doesn’t get Jon Jones,” UFC president Dana White said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “But you know what, you never hurt somebody for trying to be big and trying to become great. He gave it a shot tonight, and it didn’t happen. And Jan is the man. He is the 205-pound champ, and now he starts taking on all comers in the division.

“Size is always a factor when …

Video of Petr Yan’s corner during the sequence that resulted in his disqualification at #UFC259 pic.twitter.com/2BtRqtGmBP

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 7, 2021

Petr Yan might have received some mixed messages from his corner before landing the illegal knee that cost him his bantamweight belt at UFC 259.

According to a video shared by ESPN, one member of Yan’s team can be overheard yelling, “Just punch” while Sterling is in a grounded position. However, UFC commentator Daniel Cormier claims that someone else in the corner gave the go-ahead when asked if Yan could throw a kick.

“You can hear, one guy is saying ‘Just punch,’ but then somebody goes ‘Yes’ when he says kick,” Cormier said during the UFC 259 broadcast. “It’s in Russian. Khabib [Nurmagomedov] heard it sitting over here because we couldn’t understand the language. But someone in that corner yelled, ‘Yes, kick’ and Petr Yan lands an illegal knee that ultimately cost him the UFC cha…

Amanda Nunes wasn’t expected to have much difficulty against Megan Anderson in the UFC 259 co-main event, and she lived up to those expectations.

About the only suspense in Nunes’ featherweight title defense was how she was going to finish her Australian challenger. The Brazilian two-division champion rocked Anderson with a pair of overhand rights early, and it appeared that a knockdout was inevitable. However, after stuffing a takedown, Nunes ultimately relented on her assault of punches and hammerfists on the canvas to transition to a nifty triangle armbar to elicit the tapout 2:03 into Round 1.

According to Nunes, that was all part of the plan.

“For every opponent, I have a strategy,” Nunes said. “I cannot go in the cage without strategies A, B and C, because you don’t know if something is going to go wrong. You have to be ready, so for Megan I wanted to finish her, I didn’t want to knock her out. I paced myself. I saw she was done already but I wanted to fin…

When he began his Ultimate Fighting Championship tenure with a 2-4 record, Jan Blachowicz was on the verge of losing his spot in the world’s largest mixed martial arts organization.

Even after he righted the ship in the years that followed, it’s been an uphill climb for the Polish standout to receive the proper recognition he deserves. After besting middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in the UFC 259 headliner to retain the 205-pound crown at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night, perhaps that can finally change.

“I defended my belt,” Blachowicz said at the post-fight press conference. “Now I prove that I’m a true champion and I think now I’m going to have respect from everybody. In the next fight, I will not be the underdog anymore. But I don’t care anyway.”

Blachowicz has won nine of his last 10 UFC appearances, compiling a resume that includes victories over the likes of Adesanya, Dominick Reyes, Corey Anderson, Ronaldo Souza, Luke Rockhold, Jimi Manuw…

It appears that hopes of a future Jon Jones-Israel Adesanya superfight went up in smoke at UFC 259.

Adesanya’s bid to become a two-division champion failed on Saturday night, as he dropped a unanimous decision to reigning 205-pound king Jan Blachowicz in the evening’s headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Blachowicz took control of the contest in the championship rounds through takedowns and top control to retain his title and prevail once again despite being the underdog.

Naturally, Jones was an interested observer of the proceedings, and he couldn’t resist taking a few shots at Adesanya on Twitter. The two stars have gone back and forth in the media in recent months regarding a potential fight, and Adesanya defeating Blachowicz would have been the most obvious path to such a matchup.

Now, it appears that the dream is dead.

“Yeah, never mind, that’s not even worth my time,” Jones wrote on Twitter. “If you ever wrote me talking s—t about Izzy, slap yours…

It was pretty clear how Aljamain Sterling felt about winning the bantamweight title via disqualification moments after his UFC 259 bout with Petr Yan reached its unexpected conclusion.

When the final ruling was announced, Sterling quickly removed the belt from his waist and threw it in the Octagon before falling to his knees in disappointment. Though “The Funkmaster” wanted to continue, a cageside doctor determined otherwise after Yan landed a devastating illegal knee 4:29 into Round 4.

“Everything I worked for to this point and to have the fight go like that… I thought the fight was very close, I thought I was down two rounds. That’s not the way I wanted to win,” Sterling said. “That’s not the way I envisioned this. I just took the belt off.

“I was trying to continue even being like that, I was in a bad shape and it would just have been ego taking over and just to get further punishment. The ref told me I was down. I don’t know. I understand that there is some …

IT'S OVER!! Nzechukwu ends it in the second!! #UFC259 pic.twitter.com/OpWyj0HpVQ

— UFC Canada (@UFC_CA) March 7, 2021

Kennedy Nzechukwu and Carlos Ulberg threw caution to the wind in their matchup at UFC 259, and the light heavyweights were rewarded handsomely for their efforts.

Nzechkwu and Ulberg received “Fight of the Night” honors and $50,000 apiece for their preliminary clash at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, which proved to be a slugfest from the opening bell. After an opening stanza in which Ulberg had his opponent reeling early, Nzechukwu took control in Round 2, ultimately dropping his adversary with a right hook and sealing his win with standing-to-ground punches at the 3:19 mark of the period.

Elsewhere, Kai Kara France survived some serious adversity to earn a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” check in a preliminary flyweight triumph against Rogerio Bontorin. Bontorin spent most of the opening stanza attached to his foe’s back, b…

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 259 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Maybe now Jan Blachowicz will get the respect he deserves. The Polish powerhouse tightened his grip on the Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight title, as he took a unanimous decision from reigning middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in the UFC 259 headliner on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. All three judges scored it for Blachowicz (28-8, 11-5 UFC): 49-46, 49-45 and 49-45. There will be no two-division reign for Adesanya, at least not yet.

After three closely contested rounds that saw the two champions trade leg kicks, jabs and occasional power punches, Blachowicz tapped into the City Kickboxing star’s most glaring weakness. He struck for takedowns in Rounds 4 and 5, controlled Adesanya (20-1, 9-1 UFC) from half guard and salted away arguably the most significant victory of his 36-fight career. Blachowicz …

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 259 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Sherdog's live UFC 259 coverage will begin Saturday at 5:15 p.m. ET. Check out the MMA Forums to discuss the card or enter your comments and predictions below. Round 1 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round:The Official Result Round 1 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Round 2 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the round:Tristen Critchfield scores the round:Round 3 Sherdog Scores Jay Pettry scores the round:Brian Knapp scores the ro…

They're opening up in the final minutes! #UFC259 pic.twitter.com/aFm08wLFvR

— UFC (@ufc) March 7, 2021

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC 259 live on your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app.

Dominick Cruz still has something left to offer.

The former Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight titleholder eked out a split decision over Casey Kenney in the featured UFC 259 prelim on Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Judges Derek Cleary and Sal D’Amato scored it 29-28 and 30-27 for Cruz, while Michael Bell saw it 29-28 for Kenney.

Neither man was willing to budge. Cruz (23-3, 6-2 UFC) darted in and out with his patented unorthodox movements, piled up points with lunging punches to the head and occasionally zeroed in on the body. Kenney counteracted those efforts with repeated kicks to the legs and timely power punches upstairs. Both men were stricken by fatigue in the…