Author: mmafighting
Charles Oliveira might start sweating after Islam Makhachev’s most recent comments. UFC 294 was supposed to be headlined by the big rematch between the lightweight division’s last and current champions. When it comes to dominance, no one at 155 pounds has been as strong as Oliveira and Makhachev over the past few years. Unfortunately for Oliveira, his historic and thrilling streak through the division came to a halt at the hands of Makhachev in October of last year via a second-round arm-triangle choke. Just two weeks out before Oliveira was to challenge Makhachev in their rematch, he suffered a bad…
The poster for the first UFC pay-per-view card of 2024 has now been revealed, with a pair of title fights headed to Toronto, Canada on Jan. 20. The middleweight title will go up for grabs at UFC 297 when Sean Strickland clashes with Dricus du Plessis in the main event, while a new women’s bantamweight champion will be crowned when Mayra Bueno Silva takes on Raquel Pennington in the co-headliner. Check out the UFC 297 poster below. Strickland makes the first defense of his middleweight title after pulling off a shocking upset with a win over Israel Adesanya in September.…
Belal Muhammad wants his title shot and he’ll do anything to get it. It turns out that includes serving as the backup for the upcoming UFC 296 main event where Leon Edwards will defend the welterweight title against Colby Covington. Muhammad, who is currently riding a 10 fight unbeaten streak, will hit the scales and weigh-in as the backup just in case something happens to either fighter in the title fight. Sources close to the situation confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Sunday after Muhammad first revealed his role as the backup fighter to MMA Junkie. After a dominant…
The California State Athletic Commission has voted to approve bare-knuckle fighting in the state, following athletic commissions in states such as Florida, Utah and New York. The vote passed unanimously, 6-0, for the state to begin regulating bare-knuckle fighting events in the near future. The CSAC will oversee bare-knuckle fighting under the same guidance in sports such as MMA and boxing. BKFC — the largest bare-knuckle fighting promotion — has already announced plans to take a card to California in spring 2024 with a date and location still to be determined. BKFC has aggressively expanded its footprint in recent years,…
A new bantamweight title contender could be crowned when ex-champion Henry Cejudo faces Merab Dvalishvili in a featured bout at UFC 298 on Feb. 17 in Anaheim, Calif. Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed the news to MMA Fighting on Sunday after Cejudo initially announced the matchup on his YouTube channel. “This fight’s going to decide who’s actually going to fight eventually the winner of Chito Vera versus Sean O’Malley,” Cejudo said. “I’m excited. I’m not sure if we’re going to co-headline this fight with Ilia Topuria and Alexander Volkanovski but either way this fight is absolutely…
Alexandre Pantoja is ready to make a statement in his first title defense. In July, Pantoja won the UFC flyweight title after taking a split decision win over Brandon Moreno at UFC 290. Given the competitive nature of the fight and the fact that Moreno is so welled like, fans wondered if the UFC would set up an immediate rematch, despite the fact that Pantoja is now 3-0 over Moreno. Ultimately that didn’t happen, and instead Pantoja will defend his title against another former foe, Brandon Royval on Dec. 16 at UFC 296. Pantoja believes this was the correct decision.…
Song Yadong has his sights set on the top of the bantamweight division after his latest win over Chris Gutierrez in the UFC Vegas 83 main event. Following a dominant victory where he won every round on the scorecards, the 26-year-old bantamweight wasted no time calling for a fight against ex-champion Petr Yan at UFC 299 in March. That event is headlined by the bantamweight title fight as champ Sean O’Malley takes on Marlon “Chito” Vera in Miami. While Yan seemed uninterested in the fight, dropping a yawning emoji on Twitter, Song quickly fired back. He reminded the Russian he’s…
Bellator middleweight champion Johnny Eblen wants to fight sooner rather than later, but since the PFL doesn’t currently have his division, he won’t get the chance to engage in a champ vs. champ fight at the promotion’s planned pay-per-view in early 2024. That being said, Eblen knows there are other options available to him — the most notable being UFC veteran Derek Brunson, who made a successful PFL debut with a lopsided win over Ray Cooper III in November. If that’s a potential opponent who would get him back in action as early as February, Eblen is ready to sign…
One-time UFC light heavyweight title challenger Anthony Smith apologized to fans after his knockout loss to Khalil Rountree Jr. at UFC Vegas 83. Smith was flattened by a left hand from Rountree early in the third round of the ESPN+ event. If not for Rountree’s restraint, Smith may have taken extra damage after teetering to the canvas 56 seconds into the final frame. Smith, 35, refrained from making any definitive statements about his career, which takes another correction after a second win over Ryan Spann in his previous outing. “Congrats to Khalil and his team,” Smith wrote on Instagram. “Helluva…
Matt Brown has been there before. Back in 2017, the Ohio native declared his plans to retire from MMA following a fight scheduled against Diego Sanchez. Brown scored a vicious first-round knockout in what was supposed to be the final bout of his career. Just over two years later, Brown returned to compete again. Because he’s gone through it himself, the now 42-year-old veteran understands the difficulty surrounding fighters retiring and staying retired, which is why he wasn’t totally shocked to hear Paul Felder suddenly decide that he might compete again after he called it a career just over two…