Author: mmafighting
The PFL vs. Bellator event is in the books, and it delivered a fun card of fights, capped off by Renan Ferreira’s quick destruction of Ryan Bader. While the pay-per-view price tag was obviously too high, did the event deliver what it promised to the MMA fan base? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck and Jed Meshew give their grades for Saturday’s event in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, they’ll take viewer questions throughout the show, including the fallout of UFC Mexico City, if Brandon Royval and Brian Ortega earned second cracks at UFC gold with…
With a name like “Knockout Chaos,” it’s no wonder that Francis Ngannou and Anthony Joshua both power up as video game characters in a new trailer promoting their fight on March 8. The new promo dropped on Tuesday shows Ngannou getting word that his fight with Joshua is on but then the fighters bump into each other in the streets. With a crowd frothing at the mouth for a fight, Ngannou and Joshua square off and then go to battle in a classic video game homage with the heavyweights blasting each other off the planet. This trailer follows a similar…
Alexander Volkanovski hadn’t experienced a knockout loss since very early in his career, but that changed once he was floored in back-to-back fights against Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria. The first knockout came via head kick when Volkanovski accepted a short-notice opportunity to face Makhachev this past October. Four months later, Volkanovski suffered a similar fate when Topuria blasted him with punches to put him down with a second-round knockout that cost him the UFC featherweight title. In the wake of those losses, concerns have been raised that perhaps Volkanovski returned too soon after the first knockout loss, and that…
Eddie Hearn believes the UFC should do whatever it takes to get Conor McGregor back in the cage. For nearly a year now, one of the biggest stories in MMA has been McGregor’s possible return to action. Absent from MMA since snapping his leg in his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier in 2021, McGregor has been linked to a number of possible return dates over the past 12 months, most recently when “Notorious” himself said that he will be back in June to headline International Fight Week. But UFC CEO Dana White disagrees, recently saying that McGregor won’t be back…
Vinicius Oliveira and fellow octagon newcomer Bernardo Sopai have agreed to face off at Saturday’s UFC Vegas 87 card at the UFC APEX, multiple people with knowledge of the situation told MMA Fighting. Both fighters have to sign bout agreements. Oliveira was originally scheduled to meet Yanis Ghemmouri at the March 2 event, but Ghemmouri withdrew due to undisclosed reasons. Sopai (11-2) was scheduled to defend his Allstars Fight Night bantamweight title versus Ricardo Monteiro on March 9 in Sweden before agreeing to facing Oliveira. The 23-year-old talent makes his first walk to the octagon on a three-fight finishing streak,…
Brian Ortega may have punched his ticket to a third title shot. Despite coming off a 19-month layoff, Ortega pulled off a sensational win this past Saturday at UFC Mexico City, submitting Yair Rodriguez with a third-round arm-triangle choke after overcoming a freak ankle injury and rocky first round. But was it enough to shortcut the line to featherweight contention? In opening odds released Monday by BetOnline, Ortega is the betting favorite to be the opponent for Ilia Topuria’s first defense of his new UFC title. Ortega opened at +150 odds to be Topuria’s next opponent, meaning a $100 bet…
Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia will fight on April 20 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and while Haney is thrilled about the idea of the fight going down in the Empire State, Garcia seems to prefer it happening in Las Vegas. “Queen Ry doesn’t like it, but go cry about it,” Haney said Monday on The MMA Hour. “I mean, we signed a contract, it’s here [in Brooklyn], this is where it’s going to be and like I said, Queen Ry can go cry about it. It’s happening April 20th.” The undefeated Haney will look to continue the momentum…
Ryan Garcia wants a piece of Sean O’Malley inside the octagon. During an appearance on The MMA Hour, Garcia boldly declared that he is eager to challenge the UFC’s reigning bantamweight champion in MMA as opposed to boxing. Garcia sports a 24-1 (20 KOs) record in boxing and has a highly anticipated bout with Devin Haney coming up on April 20, but he is confident that he can step into O’Malley’s world and be victorious. “I’ll beat his ass in MMA guaranteed,” Garcia said. “I’m a natural, you don’t understand. I’m a natural wrestler. I just beat my security that’s…
Another weekend gone and another pretty darn good collection of fights. First on Saturday, PFL vs. Bellator finally took place, with Bellator champions nearly making a clean sweep of things until Renan Ferreira ran over Ryan Bader in the main event. Then it was on to UFC Mexico City, where Brandon Royval and Brian Ortega authored impressive upset wins that will shake up the flyweight and featherweight division’s respectively. So let’s talk about all that, plus this weekend’s fight card. UFC Mexico City Was that the worst judging in a UFC card ever? Multiple fights with questionable split decisions.— Ali…
Not only is Henry Cejudo not retiring, he already has his next opponent in mind. In a YouTube video released Monday, Cejudo called for a fight with fellow former flyweight champion Brandon Moreno that would take place at UFC 306, which is set to be hosted at Sphere in Las Vegas. Both fighters are currently on two-fight losing streaks with no clear path back to a title shot, so Cejudo is drawing upon their shared history to hype up a potential grudge match. “What fight would be better than ‘Triple C,’ the Mexican-American, vs. the true Mexican and they come…