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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIgjlsDndWs&w=560&h=315] Combate Americas returns to Mexicali, Mexico, for its second event of the decade, and while the title fight is official, three fighters on the card did miss weight.

Headlining the event is a lightweight title bout as the undefeated Rafa Garcia will put his belt on the line against 2019 Copa Combate winner Humberto Bandenay. Garcia (11-0) has won seven straight fights inside “La Jaula,” most recently capturing the inaugural lightweight belt in September after defeating Erick Gonzalez in a fight that went the full 25 minutes. Prior to that, “Gifted” wowed in submission victories over Estevan Payan and Edgar Escarrega. The champ hit the lightweight championship limit perfectly at 155 pounds.

Despite being the same age as the champ, challenger Bandenay (18-7, 1 NC) will look to use his experience to his advantage. The Peruvian fighter had four fights inside the Ultimate Fighting Championship, where he went 1-3,…

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Kicking off a busy doubleheader weekend for Bellator MMA is Bellator 239, and all but two fighters made weight successfully for the Winstar World Casino event.

The Thackerville, Oklahoma, card is headlined by an intriguing welterweight matchup between Ed Ruth (8-1) and Yaroslav Amosov (22-0). Ruth rebounded from his submission defeat to Neiman Gracie by beating Kiichi Kunimoto and Jason Jackson in his last two bouts. The former Penn State wrestler will look to show off his skills and get into title contention with a big win here. “Easy” had no trouble making weight and came in at 170.9 pounds.

Amosov posts an impressive unbeaten record and has looked great against veteran opposition in Bellator so far. The Ukrainian fighter won decisions over Gerald Harris and Erick Silva and submitted David Rickels in his last bout. He’ll look to cement himself as one of the best prospects in the world at the expense o…

Valentina Shevchenko will continue her quest to clean out the women’s flyweight division when she defends her crown against Joanne Calderwood at UFC 251.

ESPN reported on Wednesday that both Shevchenko and Calderwood have agreed to the fight, although it has not been officially confirmed by the promotion. UFC 251 is expected to take place on June 6. A venue has not been selected for the event, but Australia is reportedly the frontrunner.

Shevchenko is coming off a dominant third-round technical knockout victory over Katlyn Chookagian in the UFC 247 co-main event on Feb. 8. The former bantamweight title challenger claimed 125-pound gold with a five-round verdict over Joanna Jedrzejczyk at UFC 231 and has since defended the belt with victories over Jessica Eye, Liz Carmouche and Chookagian.

Calderwood has won three of four UFC appearances since moving up to flyweight following a two-bout skid at 115 pounds. Most recently, the Scotland native took a split verdict ov…

Lauren Murphy has no time for boredom these days.

After she edged Andrea Lee by split decision at UFC 247, she wasted no time beginning the renovation of her new house with her husband.

“We just bought a house and we are remodeling it before we move in,” she explained. “We have to move by the end of the month, so we are kind of on a time crunch.”

The former Invicta FC bantamweight champion defeated Lee on the prelims of a UFC 247 card headlined by a light heavyweight title bout between Jon Jones and Dominick Reyes.

“It was fun, it wasn’t that much of a big a deal,” she said. “Actually, the walk to the Octagon was shorter than I was expecting. The nerves weren’t that bad.”

Murphy is now riding a two-bout winning streak. Prior to her latest Octagon appearance, she overcame Mara Romero Borella via third-round technical knockout at UFC on ESPN 5. “Lucky” is pretty sure that her performance has improved a lot after she started working with Dr. Matteo Capodaglio o…

FLYING TRIANGLE!

When @PaddyTheBaddy goes for the kill, he is spectacular

'The Baddy' has promised to make a statement at #CWLondon against new opponent Davide Martinez pic.twitter.com/Hq7ATFxIih— Cage Warriors (@CageWarriors) February 19, 2020

It’s not meant to be for Paddy Pimblett and Donovan Desmae to clash in the cage, at least not for now.

According to an official press release by the Cage Warriors Fighting Championship, Desmae has pulled out of his scheduled fight with Pimblett due to personal reasons. “The Baddy” will now lock horns with Italy’s Davide Martinez in a 155-pound clash at Cage Warriors 113. 

Pimblett (14-3) is looking to bounce back after a loss to former Cage Warriors champion Soren Bak in his most recent bout at CW 96 in 2018. Prior to that, “The Baddy” submitted with a highlight-reel flying triangle choke Alexis Savvidis at CW 90. 

Martinez will arrive at the most important fi…

Elias Theodorou has become the first professional mixed martial artist to receive a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) for medical cannabis, according to a statement released by Paradigm Sports Management on Tuesday.

Theodorou was granted a TUE by the British Columbia Athletic Commission. According to the release, he is allowed “to continue his doctor-prescribed use of medicinal cannabis and protects him from penalty if he tests above the previous threshold for in-competition use. He will follow the guidelines provided by the athletic commission regarding fight-week medical use.”

Theodorou previously applied for a medical exemption for cannabis during his UFC tenure, but he was denied by the promotion’s anti-doping partner, USADA. However, the release states “his application and subsequent advocacy garnered positive interest on the matter.”

“I am grateful both as a patient and an athlete for the approval of my medical cannabis TUE by the BC Athletic Commission, reco…

Eryk Anders will square off against Krzysztof Jotko in a middleweight clash at UFC Portland.

The Las Vegas-based promotion confirmed the booking on Tuesday. UFC Fight Night 172 take place at the Moda Center in Portland, Ore., on April 11 and is headlined by a heavyweight showdown between Alistair Overeem and Walt Harris. The card will stream on ESPN+.

Anders enters the matchup on a two-bout winning streak. After scoring a first-round knockout of Vinicius Moreira Castro at UFC on ESPN 3, the former University of Alabama football player garnered a split verdict against Gerald Meerschaert at UFC Fight Night 161. The 32-year-old Spartan Fitness product is 5-4 in the UFC and 13-4 as a professional overall.

Jotko is also on a two-fight winning streak after earning decision wins over Alen Amedovski and Marc-Andre Barriault in his only two UFC appearances of 2019. Jotko has experienced an up-and-down promotional tenure, winning six of his first seven outings before endur…

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Up-and-coming light heavyweight Aleksandar Rakic has signed a new six-fight contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The 28-year-old Austrian announced the news via social media on Monday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Pleased to announce I have signed a new long-term contract with [six] fights in the UFC,” he wrote. “This is the [third] contract with the company in [two] years.”

Rakic saw a 12-fight winning streak come to an end in his last outing at UFC Fight Night 165, where he dropped a split decision to former title challenger Volkan Oezdemir on Dec. 21. Rakic outlanded his foe by a 75-to-63 count in significant strikes, and seven of the eight media scorecards tracked by MMADecisions.com saw the fight in favor of the American Top Team representative.

Rakic began his UFC tenure with four consecutive triumphs, a streak that included first-round KO/TKO wins over D…

Tight squeeze by @TOOSWEET_Alpar #DWCS pic.twitter.com/YZMIdKvmYx

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 14, 2019

Vanessa Melo will replace Duda Santana and face Sarah Alpar at UFC Oklahoma City on May 2.

Both Melo and Alpar confirmed the new bantamweight booking on their Instagram stories Monday following an initial report from Combate. UFC Oklahoma City takes place at Chesapeake Energy Arena and also features a strawweight showdown between Claudia Gadelha and Marina Rodriguez. The Fight Night event does not yet have a headliner.

Melo is still looking for her first Octagon triumph after dropping unanimous verdicts against Irene Aldana at UFC Fight Night 159 and Tracy Cortez at UFC Fight Night 164 in 2019. The 31-year-old Sao Paulo, Brazil, native owns a 10-7 professional mark that includes eight wins by decision and two via submission.

Alpar, meanwhile, will be making her promotional debut after submitting Shanna Young on Season 3…

One Championship “King of the Jungle” will be a spectator-less event.

One CEO Chatri Sityodtong announced on Monday that the Feb. 28 card will be closed to the public due to the outbreak of the coronavirus in Singapore. Instead, it will be a broadcast only event.

“In light of the coronavirus situation in Singapore, I have made the decision to convert ONE: King of the Jungle on February 28 into a closed event for broadcast only,” Sityodtong wrote. “The Singapore Indoor Stadium will not be open to the general public, but the event will proceed behind closed doors as scheduled live on all TV and digital platforms across 150+ countries around the world. If you purchased tickets to attend the event at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, you will receive a full refund.”

The coronavirus outbreak originated in China, where it has reportedly killed 1,770 people and infected 70,000. There have been more than 71,000 cases of coronavirus worldwide, with the largest outbreaks outsi…

Israel Adesanya apparently has designs on moving up in weight once he extends his reign at middleweight, but the targeted opponent does not reside in the division one might expect.

In a recent interview with Submission Radio, City Kickboxing coach Eugene Bareman revealed that Adesanya would eventually like to square off against heavyweight titlist Stipe Miocic.

“Israel stated, and I think it’s a very good plan, he’s gonna do his thing in the middleweight division. There’s some really tough challenges,” Bareman said. “He should clear those out. There’s at least three or four more good challenges. But three or four more fights for Israel is like maybe within this year. So, after that, what’s the next challenge? For him, and we’ve done it in all the sports that we’ve participated in, it’s to move up in weight. And trust me, if he has these three or four more middleweight fights, we will push to fight Stipe [Miocic], 100 percent.

“If Israel can get the business done …

Corey Anderson saw his light heavyweight championship dreams go up in smoke at UFC Rio Rancho.

The fighter known as “Overtime” entered Saturday’s card on a four-bout winning streak, but a powerful right hook from Jan Blachowicz brought an emphatic conclusion to their headlining bout just 3:08 into the opening stanza. Anderson, who was favored in the bout, previously defeated Blachowicz via unanimous decision at UFC 191 in 2015.

While a victory would have positioned Anderson for a crack at reigning 205-pound king Jon Jones, it was Blachowicz who was able to posture for his own opportunity with the reigning champion seated cageside in his adopted home state.

Anderson is taking the loss in stride, however. The 30-year-old released a statement on social media, and he seems to be ready to move forward.

“A great coach once told me ‘You have 5 minutes to sulk and then it's on to the next one.’ We live and we learn,” Anderson wrote. “Back to the drawing board. I ap…

Jon Jones was front and center for Jan Blachowicz’s attempt to lay claim to the No. 1 contender spot at light heavyweight, and the reigning champion was more than pleased to see a new challenger emerge.

After Blachowicz vanquished Corey Anderson via first-round knockout in the UFC Fight Night 167 headliner in Rio Rancho, N.M., on Saturday night, Jones appeared to be fired up as he and the Polish fighter shared a moment in the aftermath of the bout.

“I though he [Blachowicz] looked great. He looked tremendous. Crisp boxing, great takedown defense. He just looked really good,” Jones said during a backstage interview on ESPN+. “I was happy to see Corey Anderson eat his words. He’s been talking so much trash.”

Prior to UFC Fight Night 167, Anderson mentioned that he was looking forward to being the one to defeat Jones after the champion had a close call against Dominick Reyes at UFC 247 one week prior . However, a short right hook from Blachowicz sent Anderson to the…

John Dodson had no intention of serving as a steppingstone for Nathaniel Wood.

Dodson halted the eight-fight winning streak of the Englishman known as “The Prospect,” winning via third-round technical knockout in a preliminary bantamweight tilt at UFC Fight Night 167 in Rio Rancho, N.M., on Saturday.

“The Ultimate Fighter 14” winner entered the contest having lost three of his last four Octagon appearances, and he had an inkling the promotion was looking to build upon Wood’s momentum.

“Feels amazing to get back into the win column. It wasn’t easy. Nathaniel Wood is a tough opponent and I want to make sure I continue trashing these young opponents that they are giving me,” Dodson said. “I keep giving them the wins and then they are getting the title contention spots and now I want the same thing for myself. This win builds me back up.

“They keep giving me these tough opponents. When I lost to Marlon Moraes, they started boosting him up. When I lost to Petr Y…

Jan Blachowicz put a lasting stamp on a card that had been mostly memorable for all the wrong reasons.

The 36-year-old Pole earned a $50,000 “Performance of the Night” bonus for his first-round knockout of Corey Anderson in the UFC Fight Night 167 main event at the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho, N.M., on Saturday night. A right hook from Blachowicz sent Anderson to the canvas, and one follow-up hammerfist ended the contest at the 3:08 mark of Round 1.

Elsewhere, Daniel Rodriguez received the evening’s other $50,000 “Performance of the Night” check thanks to his upset of of local favorite Tim Means in a preliminary welterweight affair. Rodriguez, who took the bout on short notice, floored “The Dirty Bird” at the end of the first round and hurt his opponent with punches again in Round 2 before securing a guillotine choke submission 3:37 into the period.

Finally, Scott Holtzman and Jim Miller garnered “Fight of the Night” honors and $50,000 apiece for their pr…

Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream UFC on ESPN+ live on your computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the ESPN app. Sherdog's live UFC Fight Night 167 coverage will begin at 5 p.m. ET. Check out the MMA Forums to discuss the card or enter your comments and predictions below. Round 1 Hello fight fans, welcome to the UFC Rio Rancho play-by-play. We kick things off in the flyweight division, as De La Rosa (11-3, 2-3 UFC) -- one half of the first married couple in UFC history competing on the same card together -- takes on Raulian Paiva (18-3, 0-2 UFC). Both men are trying to snap two-fight skids, and our referee is Robert Romero. A touch of gloves clocks them in, and the fight night is underway. De La Rosa opens up with a leg kick, as Paiva looks to set up his jab. Paiva strings together a combination, and De La Rosa throws right back at him but largely comes up short. The two clash legs together, but the shin-to-shin contact does not appear to make eithe…

Bellator MMA has beefed up its March event in Connecticut in a big way on Friday.

Sherdog.com has confirmed on Friday a series of fights from a promotional official for its upcoming Bellator 241 card on March 13. Most notably is a main card offering, as Anatoly Tokov (29-2) locks horns with Fabio Aguiar (17-1) in the middleweight division.

Tokov has won all five of his bouts under the Bellator banner since signing with the promotion in 2017, including four finishes. His two defeats coming to current Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Ramazan Emeev and 2018 Professional Fighters League champ Magomed Magomedkerimov, he also dropped a one-round bout in 2012 deemed an exhibition. Tokov sports a finish rate of 79 percent, with eight of his last 10 victories coming by stoppage.

Aguiar will be making his organizational debut after 15-month layoff -- the longest in his career. The Brazilian's only defeat came to recent UFC signee Bruno Silva, and he has rattled off nine con…

Let's run it back!

We're official for #UFCRioRancho pic.twitter.com/7kvFefCH4L

— UFC (@ufc) February 14, 2020 The Ultimate Fighting Championship touches down in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, for its latest card, and it is now official after the weigh-ins. Editor's note: The article has been updated at 2:15 p.m. ET on 2/14/20 to reflect additional information about Ray Borg.

Headlining the ESPN+ event is a light heavyweight bout with potential title ramifications as Corey Anderson will look to earn a title shot at the expense of Jan Blachowicz. Anderson (13-4) is on an impressive four-fight winning streak after being knocked out in back-to-back bouts to Jimi Manuwa and Ovince St. Preux. Prior to knocking out Johnny Walker, he won decisions over Patrick Cummins, Ilir Latifi and Glover Teixeira. "Overtime" looked prepared on the scales, and came in at 205 pounds.

Blachowicz (25-8) had his own four-fight winning streak snapped by …

It appears that Morgan Charriere will get a second chance to win a Cage Warriors Fighting Championship belt after all.

A person with knowledge of the situation who asked to stay anonymous informed Sherdog that Charriere will face Darko Banovic at CW 113 for the interim featherweight championship. The Frenchman was considered to locked horns with featherweight titleholder Mads Burnell (13-3) in the co-main event, but the latter pulled out of the match.

Charriere (15-7-1) is 2-1 in his Cage Warriors career. After dropping his first with the promotion against Soren Bak at CW 103, "Luffy" got back on track thanks to a split decision victory over Lewis Monarch at CW 106. In his latest appearance, the Team Chapa Quente representative stopped Dean Truman in the third stanza of their encounter at CW 109.

Banovic (15-7) will arrive at the most important fight in his career riding a two-bout winning streak. "Face Smasher" did just that against Gary Ellison in 31 secon…

Combate Americas is returning to Tucson, Arizona, in March.

The promotion announced via press release on Thursday that its upcoming event on March 13 will be titled “Superfly.” The event will take place at the Tucson Arena in the Tucson Convention Center in Tucson. Combate Americas: "Superfly" will air on AXS TV stateside at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, while it will be simulcast in Spanish on Univision and TUDN USA that night. This will be the fifth time the organization has traveled to this southwestern U.S. city.

The event will be headlined by a flyweight tilt between Juan Puerta (18-6) and Ivan Lopez (14-4-1). Of this matchup, Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren lauded these two and the division, stating, "The flyweight division is home to some of the most intense and fast-paced action in the sport, and one of our best assets, so it's about time we dedicate the main card of our TV show to this group of men and women."

Serving in the co-headliner is another flyweigh…

Fight News! @NotoriousNewell looks to bounce back in his 3rd appearance for Bellator & fresh off a win, Zach Zane intends to improve to & in the Bellator cage at #Bellator241.

Get your s to see them fight at The @MoheganSun on 3/13. https://t.co/qKTklp90Hu pic.twitter.com/3EZ5D4k3iw

— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) February 13, 2020 Bellator MMA is adding on to its March event in Connecticut with a hometown fighter against a Hawaiian. Editor's note: This article has been updated on 6:15 p.m. ET on 2/13/20 after the promotion changed the date and location of the bout from May to March and San Jose, California, to Uncasville, Connecticut.

According to the promotion on Thursday, Nick Newell (16-3) will be meeting Zach Zane at lightweight at Bellator 241 on March 13.

Newell dropped his most recent bout against Luis Muro in October, suffering a narrow split decision defeat at Bellator 232. Prior to the loss, Newell made …

Ultimate encaminha @FabricioWerdum x @oleynikufc para o UFC 250, em São Paulo | combate | Globoesporte https://t.co/zQpLSg9Hnj com @vevyrodrigues

— Raphael Marinho (@raphamarinho) February 13, 2020 The Ultimate Fighting Championship is stacking its return to Brazil in May with another major heavyweight battle.

According to a report from Combate on Thursday, former heavyweight champ Fabricio Werdum (23-8-1) will be returning from a lengthy suspension to face off against Alexey Oleynik (58-13-1). The two will reportedly meet at UFC 250, which is set to go down on May 9 at the Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Werdum has not competed since losing in the UFC Fight Night 127 headliner against Alexander Volkov at UFC Fight Night 127 in March 2018. The 42-year-old Brazilian has been under suspension after testing positive for banned substances in April 2018, but received a 10-month reduction in his sentence from the U.S. Ant…

Karl Roberson will square off against Makhmud Muradov in a middleweight bout at UFC 249.

Newsday was first to report the contest. UFC 249 takes place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on April 18 and is headlined by a lightweight title clash between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson.

A competitor on the initial season of Dana White’s Contender Series, Roberson has been victorious in four of his six Octagon appearances. Most recently, the 29-year-old submitted Roman Kopylov in the third round at UFC Fight Night 163.

Muradov, who is managed by boxing great Floyd Mayweather, has kicked off his promotional tenure with victories over Alessio Di Chirico and Trevor Smith. The 30-year-old Uzbekistan native is currently on a 13-bout winning streak and is 24-6 as a professional overall.

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Corey Anderson didn’t see the outcome of the UFC 247 headliner between Jon Jones and Dominick Reyes as a robbery.

Jones ultimately retained his light heavyweight title with a controversial unanimous decision triumph over Reyes on Saturday at the Toyota Center in Houston, but many unofficial scorecards had the verdict going the other way.

“Dominick threw more punches and landed more, but, percentage-wise, I think Jon landed more,” Anderson told TMZ Sports. “You could flip the coin on that one, it could have went either way.”

Anderson lobbied hard to face Jones in recent weeks, but the champion ended up electing to fight Reyes, in part because of the Californian’s previously unblemished record. While watching the UFC 247 main event, “Overtime” had concerns that he would lose his chance to make history.

“When I was watching, I was like, ‘Man, I could lose that opportunity to be the one to beat Jo…