Author: mmafighting

Jonathan Pearce talked trash, and then he got finished at UFC Vegas 82. Pearce faced fellow surging featherweight Joanderson Brito at Saturday’s UFC Fight Night event at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas. With “JSP” looking in firm control in the second round, Pearce told Brito to “get up and do something,” which led to the Brazilian standout doing exactly that, and then slapping on a ninja choke to get the tap at 3:54 of Round 2. Brito then tapped into his inner Derrick Lewis and took off his shorts for his post-victory celebration. Check out how UFC fighters reacted…

Jeka Saragih earned his first win in the UFC with a highlight-reel knockout. The Indonesian fighter scored the finish after blasting Lucas Alexander with a punch during a mat scramble that sent the Brazilian crashing against the cage. Saragih followed up with another punch and then a barrage of shots that knocked Alexander out cold. Referee Herb Dean rushed in to stop the contest, with the end coming at just 1:31 of the opening round at UFC Vegas 82. “This is a long journey for me,” Saragih said after his victory. “I spend more time here in the United States…

Trey Ogden will go home with half his paycheck and a no-contest on his record after referee Mike Beltran made an egregious mistake in his fight with Nikolas Motta at UFC Vegas 82. The controversy arose when Beltran stopped the fight after Ogden mounted Motta and then transitioned into an arm-triangle choke late in the third round. While Ogden had the choke locked in, Motta was clearly still contesting the submission as the referee shouted at him to react. Despite Motta still resisting the choke, Beltran jumped in and stopped the fight. Ogden began celebrating while the Brazilian jumped up…

Amanda Ribas returns to the strawweight division for the first time in two years when she faces Luana Pinheiro on Saturday at UFC Vegas 82. She has a wild analogy for her stricter weight cut. Ribas competed three times at flyweight over the past 24 months, walking out 10 pounds heavier than the weight limit she has to reach Friday morning in Las Vegas. She joked on MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca podcast she would definitely be “better fed” as a flyweight. However, she sees advantages in suffering. “My dad told me that way back then that in order to train…

Fighters typically try to eliminate as many distractions as possible when getting ready to compete, but don’t lump UFC lightweight Trey Ogden into that group. Just a few weeks out from his own matchup at UFC Vegas 82, Ogden was flying halfway around the world to corner Mike Breeden in Abu Dhabi because that’s the responsibility he’s taken upon himself over the past year. That trip came after Ogden was also front and center for a fight involving Garrett Armfield in Singapore in August as well as a relatively quick jaunt out to Las Vegas to corner Miles Johns in…

Brendan Allen and Paul Craig may seem far off from a title shot, but given the current state of the middleweight division, UFC Vegas 82’s main event could give us a glimpse at a future challenger. Let us not forget, just four months ago Sean Strickland won a seemingly inconsequential headliner against Abus Magomedov that snowballed into Strickland going on to handle champion Israel Adesanya at UFC 293 in one of the UFC’s greatest upsets. Now, Strickland was at least hovering around the title conversation due to his activity, growing following, and having previously traded verbal shots with Adesanya, but…

MMA Fighting has UFC Vegas 82 results for the Allen vs. Craig fight card, a live blog of the main event, and more from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas on Saturday night. In the main event, Brendan Allen and Paul Craig will square off in a middleweight contest. Allen has won five straight fights, while Craig has won three of his past five fights. Michael Morales will clash with Jake Matthews in a welterweight contest in the co-main event. Check out the UFC Vegas 82 results below. Middleweights Meet In Las Vegas! Brendan Allen and Paul Craig face off…

If Bellator 301 was the final card in the company’s history, it went out with a bang. On Friday evening at WinTrust Arena in Chicago, Jason Jackson authored one of the most surprising outcomes of the year, flattening the previously undefeated Yaroslav Amosov to become the new Bellator welterweight champion. Jackson made Amosov uncomfortable from the outset, applying constant pressure and defending Amosov’s takedowns brilliantly. In the third round, Jackson dropped Amosov with a straight right hand and then put the pedal down, finally ending the bout with a nasty short uppercut as Amosov tried for a desperation takedown. Jackson…

Bellator 301 could be the final card in company history Friday in Chicago as promotion leaders negotiate a potential sale to PFL, and grand prix semifinalist Patricky Pitbull wonders if he will get a chance to compete for a million-dollar check next if he gets past Alexander Shabliy. The former Bellator lightweight champion advanced to the penultimate bout in the grand prix with a victory over late-notice replacement Roberto Satoshi in July, and should earn a shot at the title with a victory. It’s still unclear what will happen next, though, after 155-pound titleholder Usman Nurmagomedov failed a drug test…

Killys Mota feels he’s one of the best lightweights on the planet going into his 160-pound catchweight bout with Islam Mamedov at Friday’s Bellator 301 in Chicago, and he’s out to prove he’s destined for greatness. Mota won three in a row in a span of 10 months under the Bellator banner, including a decision over UFC veteran Dan Moret and a rear-naked choke finish against Dana White’s Contender Series winner Kenneth Cross. He gets the sense that the MMA community still underestimates him because of his quiet outside-the-cage persona. “Fighting is business and you have to be surrounded by…