Author: mmafighting
Fabricio Andrade is driven by challenges. Andrade, also known as “Wonderboy,” captured the ONE Championship bantamweight title by beating John Lineker in impressive fashion in February. Now, he returns to action Friday night to pursue another belt, challenging ONE Muay Thai champion Jonathan Haggerty for the vacant ONE bantamweight kickboxing title in Bangkok. Andrade said on MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca podcast that he was originally approached with the idea of facing Petchtanong Petchfergus for his belt, however the kickboxing champion was suspended and stripped of the title after testing positive for anabolic steroids metenolone and noldenone. “When they offered me…
BKFC middleweight champion David Mundell defends his title on Friday, and he’s utterly frustrated that another title in his same division will be handed out in December. The bare-knuckle outfit announced a showdown between ex-UFC fighters Mike Perry and Eddie Alvarez on Dec. 2 in Salt Lake City to crown the first ever “King of Violence” champion. The marquee fight will even have its own title belt awarded to the winner, similar to what the UFC did with the “BMF” title on two different occasions. As much as Mundell understands that the “King of Violence” title is all about promotion…
Jon Jones was supposed to headline UFC 295 next Saturday before tearing his pectoral muscle, thus delaying his matchup with decorated former heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic until sometime in 2024. While it seemed like the Miocic matchup could be the final one for Jones, does the delay change things at all? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck discusses Jones’ future, and makes the case that “Bones” could stick around after the Miocic fight. Additionally, listener questions include favorite fights of all-time, why a Jones vs. Francis Ngannou fight will never happen, the UFC’s…
Aaron Aby will never forget the first time he was told he was going to die. It was during his seventh grade year of school in his native England, when an instructor was teaching the class about biology and he read from a textbook about genetic diseases. The chapter addressed cystic fibrosis — a disease that causes severe damage to the lungs, pancreas, and other organs where cells that produce mucus, sweat, and digestive juices cause those fluids to be sticky and thick rather than thin and slippery. As a result, a person stricken with cystic fibrosis can undergo all…
Welcome to the latest edition of Missed Fists where we shine a light on fights from across the globe that may have been overlooked in these hectic times where it seems like there’s an MMA show every other day. We’ll get to Missed Fists in a sec, but I’m not sure anything can match the combat sports wackiness that went down in Saudi Arabia this past weekend. Did you hear about the former MMA champion who made his boxing debut and almost beat Tyson Fury? Wild. (Big thanks as always to @Barrelelapierna for their weekly lists of the best KOs…
Jailton Almeida vs. Derrick Lewis is official for UFC Sao Paulo after both heavyweights came in under the 265-pound limit Friday morning in Brazil. A career light heavyweight who has gone 4-0 since moving up a division in 2022, “Malhadinho” Almeida weighed in at 236 pounds, five pounds heavier than his previous main event clash with Jairzinho Rozenstruik. He won that match via first-round submission. Lewis came in at 265 pounds. In his previous match, “The Black Beast” stepped on the scale at 263.5 pounds a day before knocking out Marcos Rogerio de Lima in just 33 seconds. Nicolas Dalby…
UFC CEO Dana White didn’t see Francis Ngannou vs. Tyson Fury, or so he told Donald Trump Jr. on Thursday, during an appearance on Trump Jr.’s Triggered video podcast. But for all of White’s issues with Ngannou, he couldn’t help but give the ex-UFC heavyweight champ respect for going the distance with the heavyweight boxing champ, who won a narrow split decision this past Saturday in Saudi Arabia. “The fact that he went 10 rounds with Tyson Fury is crazy,” White said. “He just went 10 rounds with Tyson Fury, Conor [McGregor] made it 9 or 10 with Floyd, Anthony…
Henry Cejudo isn’t on board with the recently created interim heavyweight title fight made for UFC 295 next Saturday. Sergei Pavlovich and Tom Aspinall have been on a crash course to fight each other as they’ve continued to ascend the ranks of their division. Neither man was expected to be fighting in New York City next weekend but unfortunately, disaster struck when the current undisputed champion Jon Jones suffered a torn pectoral muscle in training last week. The heavyweight finishers will now collide with an interim title on the line as Jones’ recovery is expected to take around eight months.…
At the UFC Sao Paulo weigh-ins, all 26 fighters on Saturday’s fight card in Sao Paulo, Brazil, will step on the scale Friday. MMA Fighting will have live video of the proceedings, courtesy of Ag. Fight. In the main event, heavyweights Jailton Almeida and Derrick Lewis can weigh no more than 266 pounds, the maximum allowed for their non-title heavyweight fight. The UFC Sao Paulo official weigh-ins are expected to begin at 8 a.m. ET. Heavyweights Collide In Brazi! Jailton Almeida and Derrick Lewis face off – LIVE HERE – on Saturday night. Watch Live Stream Here Check out UFC…
ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong sparked quite a debate when he declared that his organization promotes the best strikers in the world, especially compared to the very “sloppy, mediocre-ish striking” Sityodtong says he’s witnessed in the UFC. Of course, ONE Championship not only promotes MMA, it also boasts several divisions across both Muay Thai and kickboxing, which are obviously striking-based sports. Sityodtong feels that factor only strengthens his claim. He said the difference in levels between ONE and the UFC is “not even close.” Jonathan Haggerty, the current ONE bantamweight Muay Thai world champion, backs his boss about the striking…