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Manny Gamburyan has the itch again.

The UFC and WEC veteran is planning to come out of retirement for an Octagon return in mid-to-late 2019. “The Anvil” must first re-enter the USADA drug testing pool before he is cleared to compete again. Gamburyan confirmed his decision via social media following a report on the "Ariel and the Bad Guy” show on Wednesday.

Gamburyan initially announced his retirement in 2016 following a second-round technical knockout loss to Johnny Eduardo, his second straight TKO defeat in the promotion.

"This might surprise a lot of people, even my family and friends," Gamburyan said then. "It's been tough, this has been a long road, this is my first time being in Brazil. I had a great time, but, I think this is it for me, guys. I'm going to call it a career, probably.”

As it turns out, “probably” was the key word. “The Ultimate Fighter 5” finalist owns a 15-10 career record, including a 6-8 mark with two no contests in the UFC. He…

Khabib Nurmagomedov has his long awaited showdown with Conor McGregor looming at UFC 229, but according to his father, there is still plenty of interest in another potential opponent down the road.

In an interview with Russian journalist Azamat Bostanov (translation via RT Sport), Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov said that he will be pulling for Tony Ferguson to defeat Anthony Pettis on the same Oct. 6 card in Las Vegas. Nurmagomedov and Ferguson have been booked to fight on four different occasions — UFC 223, UFC 209, UFC on Fox 19 and “The Ultimate Fighter 22” finale — and each time, for various reasons, the bout has been canceled.

“For the hype, for the money, to bury Conor’s era it (the situation) is even better for us. But if we talk purely sports-wise — we still want the Ferguson fight,” Addulmanap Nurmagomedov said. “I really want him to come back and defeat Pettis. The intrigue is still there, and the whole world is interested. It would be 11-0 Khabib [in the UFC]…

Sanchez joined the UFC in 2005 after winning the inaugural season of “The Ultimate Fighter” by defeating Kenny Florian in the middleweight tournament. Since that night he has amassed an astonishing 26 fights in the Octagon with notable wins over Nick Diaz, Joe Stevenson and his unforgettable rock ‘em sock ’em war against Clay Guida.

“The Dream” is coming off of back-to-back first-round TKO losses to Matt Brown and Al Iaquinta, a streak he will need to snap if he is serious about making that run.

While age and form are against him, the fact he is not currently ranked in the welterweight division doesn’t deter Sanchez, who says he’ll be looking to harness hi…

Anyone who has been following mixed martial arts for a while knows that Leonard Garcia and Donald Cerrone have a bond as tight as brothers.

So when Diego Sanchez took a shot at Cerrone for his comments about Mike Winkeljohn and Jackson-Wink MMA, Garcia felt the need to speak up on Cowboy’s behalf. “Bad Boy” who hasn’t competed since 2014, offered to face Sanchez in a bare-knuckle boxing match to help settle the score. Garcia, Cerrone and Sanchez were all at one time staples of the renowned Albuquerque, N.M.-based gym headed by Greg Jackson and Winkeljohn.

“Let Cowboy and [Mike Perry] handle their business!,” Garcia wrote in a message directed at Sanchez. “That’s signed and dated and I’m sure they can hash things out without anyone chiming in!

“If you feel like you have to get involved then I’m sure [World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation] would give us free reign to get whatever it is off our chests! Cowboy has a brother that will always be around!”

C…

Andrea Lee will put aside the difficulties in her personal life and return to the Octagon to meet Jessica-Rose Clark at UFC on Fox 31.

The Las Vegas-based promotion announced the flyweight pairing on Tuesday. UFC on Fox 31 takes place in Milwaukee on Dec. 15. The main card will be the UFC’s last on the Fox Network, while prelims will kick off on UFC Fight Pass. A headliner for the card has not yet been revealed.

Lee has been in headlines recently after her husband, Donny Aaron, was charged with false imprisonment and domestic violence battery at the couple’s Shreveport, La., home last month. The 29-year-old made her promotional debut at UFC Fight Night 129, where she outpointed Veronica Macedo to run her career mark to 9-2.

Clark began her Octagon tenure with triumphs over Carina Damm, Bec Rawlings and Paige VanZant but dropped a unanimous verdict to Jessica Eye in her most recent outing at UFC Fight Night 132 on June 23. The 30-year-old Australian is 9-5 w…

Paige VanZant has been cleared to compete and will appear on the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s first ESPN card next year.

VanZant announced the news on her YouTube channel on Monday. The “Dancing with the Stars” runner-up had undergone multiple surgeries after breaking her arm in a loss to Jessica-Rose Clark at UFC Fight Night 124 on Jan. 14.

“The verdict is I can go for it,” VanZant said. “I can punch people again — well I’m not able to punch people yet — but in like six weeks I can punch people. But I can start training and working out again and I’m going to be fighting in January.”

Multiple outlets recently reported that VanZant would square off against Rachael Ostovich at an as-yet-to-be announced card on Jan. 18. VanZant initially denied those reports at the time, claiming that she hadn’t yet been medically cleared.

While VanZant didn’t reveal her opponent in her video, she did c…

Justin Gaethje got back on the winning track in a big way at UFC Fight Night 135, knocking out surging lightweight James Vick 1:27 into the opening round of their Aug. 25 headlining bout.

That halted a two-bout skid for one of the sport’s premier action fighters, who had been finished in back-to-back bouts by Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier. Now that he’s established some momentum, the former World Series of Fighting Champion will be taking a keen interest in the happenings at UFC 229.

That event, of course, is headlined by a blockbuster lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor.

“We’re right back in the mix,” Gaethje recently told TMZ Sports. “Another one or two wins and I’m in it. Another finish like that. I’ll even fight the loser of Khabib and Conor.”

Another pivotal lightweight bout will take place on Oct. 6 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, as Tony F…

Two more bouts have been added to the UFC on Fox 31 lineup, as Bobby Green will face Drakkar Klose at lightweight, while Jack Hermansson will meet Gerald Meerschaert at middleweight.

The promotion confirmed the matchups to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on Monday. UFC on Fox 31 takes place at Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center in Milwaukee on Dec. 15. The card will be the final to air on Fox Network following early prelims on UFC Fight Pass.

Green halted a four-fight winless streak at UFC on Fox 27 with a unanimous verdict over Erik Koch on Jan. 27. Klose, meanwhile, has been victorious in three of four Octagon appearances, including a decision over Lando Vannata in his most recent outing at UFC 226.

Hermansson scored a third-round TKO of Thales Leites at UFC 224 for his third win in four outings with the Las Vegas-based promotion. Meerschaert has won four of five fights in the UFC, with all of his victories coming inside the distance.

“ I offered to fight Manuwa in Sao Paulo but he declined. I get it! He is coming off 2 losses doesnt need a 3rd!!!! @ufc @ufc_brasil @canalCombate

in coming to take this boys head

Gonna show this boy the meaning of respect ,through violence.

Heavy-handed Brazilian middleweight Thiago Santos will make his fourth appearance this year when he takes on fellow knockout artist Jimi Manuwa at light heavyweight at UFC Fight Night 137 on Sept. 22. Santos replaced Manuwa’s original opponent, Glover Teixeira, who was forced to pull out of the bout due to injury.

The 34-year-old revealed during a UFC media day on Tuesday in Brazil that he only got the fight after he got under the skin of Manuwa on Twitter courtesy of manager Alex Davis, who encouraged the B…

UFC President Dana White tends to be prone to hyperbole when it comes to forecasting pay-per-view buys for his promotion. He is predicting especially big numbers for UFC 229, which is headlined by a lightweight championship clash between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor.

“I am confident it will do 2 million on pay-per-view,” White recently told Yahoo! Sports.

If White’s projections turn out to be true, it would be the largest pay-per-view in UFC history. He has good reason to be confident, as cards involving McGregor have been some of the largest draws in organization history. While the promotion doesn’t release official numbers, industry estimates have four cards involving the Irishman exceeding the 1 million mark.

Tickets for UFC 229 sold out in three hours, and the event is expected to produce a record gate. Normally the promotion will comp free tickets for its fighters, but that will not be the case for the Oct. 6 card at the T-Mobile Arena in Las…

An intriguing bantamweight matchup pitting Ricardo Ramos against Ricky Simon is in the works for UFC Fight Night 139.

MMAFighting.com was first to report the bout, which has not been officially signed. UFC Fight Night 139 takes place at the Pepsi Center in Denver on Nov. 10 and is headlined by a featherweight showdown between Frankie Edgar and Chan Sung Jung.

Ramos enters the bout on a four-fight winning streak, including a trio of victories inside the Octagon. In his most recent outing, the 23-year-old Brazilian took a split verdict against Kyung Ho Kang at UFC 227. Ramos owns a 12-1 professional mark, with nine triumphs coming inside the distance.

Simon, a former Legacy Fighting Alliance champion, is riding the wave of a seven-fight winning streak. That run includes victories against Montel Jackson and Merab Dvalishvili in UFC competition. The 26-year-old is 14-1 as a pro and has finished seven of his wins by knockout, technical knockout or submission.

Virna Jandiroba (14-0) is still your Invicta FC Strawweight Champion, defending her strap for the first time with a second-round arm triangle choke on Janaisa Morandin. The self-proclaimed "female Demian Maia" has finished 11 of 14 victories, each by submission. #InvictaFC31 pic.twitter.com/xCl6zMmADz

Virna Jandiroba defended her Invicta Fighting Championships strawweight title for the first time Saturday.

Jandiroba was spectacular yet again, moving to 14-0 with a relatively easy submission win over tough contender Janaisa Morandin in the main event of Invicta 31 at Scottish Rite Temple in Kansas City. “Carcara” took “Evil Princess” down in the first and landed some solid ground-and-pound and then finished her fellow Brazilian in the second frame.

Jandiroba took her opponent down about two minutes into the second, swiftly scooted to side control and matter-of-factly locked on a textbook a…

Soren Bak (11-1) quells the Liverpool faithful, pillaging Paddy Pimblett en route to a decision win and the Cage Warriors strap. A deep RNC from Paddy nearly finished it in the first, but "The True Viking" roared back with relentless pressure and a stellar top game. #CW96 pic.twitter.com/Oanjqh28eX

Two new champions were crowned Saturday in Liverpool, England, at Cage Warriors 96.

Soren Bak showed a glacial calm and survived a tight rear-naked choke for the majority of the first round. After the opening period was dominated by Paddy Pimblett, who was attempting to become a two-division Cage Warriors champ, Bak started to feel more comfortable in the cage. The fighter from Denmark went on to win the vacant lightweight title with a sold unanimous decision (48-44, 48-45, 48-46).

Germany's Jonas Billstein (20-5-1) is your new Cage Warriors Middleweight Champion, submitti…

Well... that was eventful!

Pimblett vs Bak is ON.Liverpudlian Middleweight Mick Stanton steps up a weight class to fight Jonas Billstein for the belt on 24 HOURS NOTICE!!

Full #CW96 weigh in results https://t.co/zpTNuPHXUf pic.twitter.com/xBeN6Yafd3

A bit of drama unfolded in Liverpool, England, during the Cage Warriors 96 weigh-ins Friday morning.

Local star and promotional middleweight champion Lee Chadwick failed to make weight before his clash with No. 1 contender Jonas Billstein. Chadwick was stripped of his title and he won’t fight Saturday. Welterweight Mick Stanton moved up a weight class and stepped in at 24 hours’ notice to fight against Billstein for the vacant crown.

There were no such issues for the main event: Both Paddy Pimblett and Soren Bak made weight and are ready to go tomorrow for the CW lightweight championship. The main card also features Ultimate Figh…

The weigh-ins for Saturday night’s Invicta Fighting Championships 31 event has concluded, with only one fighter missing weight. The card features a strawweight title fight between Virna Jandiroba and Janaisa Morandin, who both made the 115-pound limit during Friday’s weigh-ins.

Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Pearl Gonzalez (8-3) will look to continue her winning streak since losing her two UFC bouts. Gonzalez is on a two-fight winning streak since her Octagon stint ended.

Elsewhere on the card, Mallory Martin missed the strawweight limit for her fight against Ashley Nichols. Martin will be fined 25 percent of her fight purse for coming in a pound overweight.

The eight-fight card begins at 8 p.m. ET, with one bout streaming on the promotion’s Facebook page. The remaining seven bouts will air live on UFC Fight Pass.

pic.twitter.com/SJnJtelVzo

Nick Diaz was cleared of all domestic assault charges on Thursday after a Las Vegas judge dropped the case against him, and now the outspoken UFC star has released a statement over the ordeal.

Diaz had been arrested in May for allegedly assaulting his on-again, off-again girlfriend, who had accused Diaz of choking her and throwing her to ground. However, the alleged victim’s story reportedly changed throughout the course of the investigation, and the charges were ultimately dropped.

Diaz, 35, hasn’t fought since 2015, where he was suspended for a subsequent positive marijuana test following a decision loss to Anderson Silva, who himself tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.

The Stockton, California, native is still under Ultimate Fighting Championship contract and is no longer serving a USADA suspension. Now that the domestic violence charges have…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship heads back down under in December for a Fight Night event in Adelaide. It will be the second time in three years the UFC has visited South Australia.

It seems the main event for the card is set, according to Combate.com with Australia’s own rising heavyweight Tai Tuivasa to take on the former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos.

Tuivasa has been campaigning for a fight with the Brazilian for a number of weeks and it seems to have paid off, with “Cigano” verbally agreeing to the bout in Adelaide.

Tuivasa last fought back in June at UFC 225 where he beat a very game Andrei Arlovski over three rounds by unanimous decision. The UFC sees Tuivasa as a potential future champion and rewarded him with a new six-fight contract recently after the win, which took his professional MMA record to 8-0 and 3-0 inside the Octagon.

Dos Santos competed last month at UFC Fight Night 133 against Blagoy Ivanov, his first fight after a 1…

I respect @LoganPaul because unlike all you #Tweeters he got his ass in the ring and fought. He goes to the gym and works. Doesn’t just talk shit. You damn right #Anybody #Anytime #Anyplace walk in off the street and we’re so good we can show anyone the light #JesusLikedBums

The fallout between Donald Cerrone and the Jackson-Wink MMA gym continues to unravel, with fighters and trainers alike providing their insight into what the situation is really like at ground zero. The catalyst for the fallout according to “Cowboy” was that fellow Jackson-Wink fighter Mike Perry called him out and the gym backed Perry instead of him.

“Platinum,” who only started training with the Jackson-Wink team earlier this year, has now weighed in on Cerrone’s comments.

The 26 year-old started by addressing Cerrone’s criticism that the gym "just lets any bums in off the street" by praising popular YouTube…

What a fight to the finish! @SuperSmealinho defeats Jamie Abdallah by TKO in Round 2 earning 5 points #PFL7 pic.twitter.com/aVCXrJCkMO

It took a little bit of calculating and some controversy, but Smealinho Rama earned a spot in the 2018 Professional Fighters League playoffs.

The light heavyweight had to dig deeper than ever before in his all-out war with Jamie Abdallah in the main event of PFL 7 at Ocean Resort Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Thursday night. Rama, from Canada but fighting out of New York, stood toe-to-toe with Abdallah as they exchanged heavy hands from the opening bell until the fight ended.

Both men were rocked badly in the contest from wicked punches upstairs, with each pouring blood from various cuts on their faces. But “The Prince” landed the heavier, more damaging blows throughout and wound up scoring an exciting finish, though it wasn’t without a bit of intrigu…

BREAKING: @MeanHakeemKO battles @KyleBochniak at # UFC231 in Toronto! pic.twitter.com/Z8aA9VaAoh

Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweights Hakeem Dawodu and Kyle Bochniak will collide at UFC 231 in December, the promotion announced on Friday.

Dawodu (8-1-1) was submitted in his Octagon debut in March of this year, but quickly rebounded with a decision victory over Austin Arnett in July.

Bochniak (8-3) has had a tough UFC run thus far, going 2-3 in the promotion with a loss to surging prospect Zabit Magomedsharipov in his last outing at UFC 223.

UFC 231 takes place on Dec. 8 in Toronto and features a featherweight title fight between champion Max Holloway and No. 1 contender Brian Ortega in the main event.

Goodman told MMAFighting.com that the Clark County (Nevada) District Attorney declined to pursue the case against Diaz on Thursday, with the judge presiding over the case in Las Vegas Justice Court dismissing the case permanently.

“We are grateful that the District Attorney’s office was fair and thoughtful in reviewing this case based on the evidence and making the decision to dismiss this matter particularly in light of the Grand Jury’s decision finding probable cause was lacking,” Goodman stated.

“Throughout this ordeal [the alleged victim] has given multiple inconsistent versions of what occurred and recently testified before the Grand Jury to a third version,” Goodman declared. “Further, the medical records made clear that [the alleged victim] did not suffer any fractures, subluxation of disl…

Surging Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight Paulo Costa has taken a shot at Yoel Romero for pulling out of their scheduled fight at UFC 230 because he believes the Cuban wants to train more ahead of their much-anticipated clash.

The 27 year-old “Borrachinha,” meaning “Eraser,” has only fought four times in the UFC but it’s the manner of his last two wins over former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks followed by his destruction of Uriah Hall that has fans taking notice.

UFC matchmakers paired Costa with former title challenger Romero in November at UFC 230 in Madison Square Garden. The Cuban withdrew from the card, stating that he is still recovering from facial injuries he suffered in his fight against middleweight champion Robert Whittaker in June.

Costa spoke with Combate recently and said while “The Soldier of God” may be hurt from the fight with Whittaker, he believes he i…

Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz have an official date and venue for their third fight.

Liddell revealed Wednesday on Larry King Now that the trilogy bout will take place on Nov. 24 at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif. Liddell and Ortiz will square off on pay-per-view under the Golden Boy Promotions banner, which is headed by boxing great Oscar De La Hoya.

The cost for Golden Boy’s first MMA event has not yet been determined. De La Hoya told ESPN that the bout will be more financially beneficial for both Liddell and Ortiz than the usual MMA model.

"I'm becoming a promoter in MMA for the same reason I became a promoter in boxing," De La Hoya said. "I'm sick and tired of these fighters coming up to me and saying they get paid crap.

"I can't get into the specifics of these deals, but I'll tell you that [Liddell and Ortiz] will be making a hell of a lot more money than they have with anybody else. …

Five fighters from this past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 135 card could be looking at an extended time on the shelf.

According to medical suspensions released by the Nebraska Athletic Commission, Cortney Casey-Sanchez, Warlley Alves, Cory Sandhagen, Iuri Alcantara and Luke Sanders have all been handed 180-day sentences. Those suspensions can be reduced with doctor clearance. The exact nature of each fighter’s injury was not revealed by the commission.

UFC Fight Night 135 took place at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Neb., on Aug. 25 and saw Justin Gaethje score a first-round knockout of James Vick in the evening’s lightweight headliner. Vick received a 60-day medical suspension as a result of the knockout, while Gaethje emerged from the event with a clean bill of health.

UFC Fight Night 135 Medical Suspensions:

Cortney Casey-Sanchez: Suspended 180 days, can receive doctor clearance to return sooner; minimum suspension of 30 days

Warlley Alves: Su…