Author: mmafighting
The Mixed Martial Arts Hour is back in your life! Below is a rundown of Wednesday’s show, which begins at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT / 6 p.m. UK time. 1 p.m. ET: Intro 1:05 p.m.: Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall join the show with a virtual face-to-face to preview their April 27 rematch. 1:30 p.m.: All your questions answered in the latest edition of On The Nose. 2 p.m.: UFC Mexico City headliner Brandon Royval previews his rematch with Brandon Moreno. 2:20 p.m.: Bellator middleweight champ Johnny Eblen breaks down his PFL vs. Bellator fight against Impa…
There has been a changing of the guard at featherweight. If Alexander Volkanovski has it his way, it will only be temporary. UFC 298 got bigger and bigger by the day of its fight week in Anaheim, Calif. The undefeated first-time title challenger Ilia Topuria’s growing confidence only boosted until pressure seemingly was getting the better of him at the energetic pre-fight press conference this past Thursday. In the end, Topuria made good on his predictions and knocked out the reigning featherweight champion in round two with a perfectly placed right hand against the cage. The loss was Volkanovski’s second…
A game-changing sports streaming service teaming Disney, FOX and Warner Bros. together faces opposition from a new $1 billion antitrust lawsuit filed by rivals at FuboTV. The lawsuit filed in federal court in New York on Tuesday alleges Fubo is being forced to carry numerous pricey, non-sports channels as a condition of licensing rights for sports networks from the companies that are now teaming up to launch a shared streaming service together. The antitrust lawsuit seeks to stop Disney, FOX and Warner Bros. from launching the service, which would bring channels from all the various companies — including ESPN, TNT,…
PFL on Tuesday announced dates and locations for the first half of its 2024 regular season – and some of the stars expected to headline upcoming events. The first card is set for April 4 at the Boeing Center in San Antonio, Texas. The event features heavyweights and female flyweights. PFL tourney champ Ante Delija and ex-interim Bellator heavyweight champ Valentin Moldavsky are part of the heavyweight season beginning that night, and Bellator flyweight champion Liz Carmouche makes her debut in the newly added women’s 125-pound class. PFL returns to Las Vegas the following Friday, April 12, with a show…
The upcoming UFC Atlantic City card has been finalized with 14 total fights set to take place at Boardwalk Hall on March 30. Flyweights Erin Blanchfield and Manon Fiorot headline the event in a five-round fight that could determine a new No. 1 contender in the division. Both fighters are undefeated in the UFC with a combined 12-0 record in the octagon. The fight was originally expected to serve as the co-main event, but an injury to Sean Brady prevented him from competing on the card against Vicente Luque in what was initially promoted as the main event. Luque will…
Arnold Allen isn’t thrilled with how his fight against Movsar Evloev went down. In January, Allen’s fight with Evloev at UFC 297 was beset by controversy. In the third round, he landed a series of knees to Evloev’s head while Evloev had his fingertips on the canvas. While those blows would have been considered legal in some other jurisdictions, in Canada, Evloev was considered a downed fighter, and so referee Marc Goddard intervened. That allowed Evloev to reset and get checked out by the doctor before resuming the action. Evloev went on to win a unanimous decision, and Allen now…
It turns out Merab Dvalishvili fought way more than three rounds this past Saturday night. With a nickname like “The Machine,” it’s no surprise that the Georgian bantamweight prides himself on his conditioning but his preparation to get ready for Henry Cejudo at UFC 298 went beyond just warming up backstage. Instead, Dvalishvili actually engaged in a three-round fight with his best friend and former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling, who was there as a coach and cornerman for him. Dvalishvili’s longtime coach Ray Longo first revealed details about the insane sparring session during the Anik & Florian podcast on…
The upcoming Bellator 302 card in Belfast needs a new co-main event after Leah McCourt was forced to pull out of her fight with Sinead Kavanagh. With McCourt out of the March 22 event, the fight with Kavanagh has been pulled from the card, multiple people with knowledge of the shift told MMA Fighting on Tuesday following an initial report from Severe MMA. Following news that the fight had been cancelled, McCourt issued a lengthy statement addressing the injury that will prevent her from competing in March. “Devastated to have to write this and let you know during a sparring…
Many MMA observers believe UFC 300’s headliner is Dricus du Plessis vs. Israel Adesanya, and any rumblings to the contrary are the usual head-fakes that accompany a group of people trying to keep big news secret. The middleweights have built-in beef and would have fought this past year had Sean Strickland not thrown a wrench into plans. But there’s at least one person who thinks it’s a bad idea, and that’s former UFC flyweight champ and current ONE champ Demetrious Johnson. “I don’t like that fight for Izzy, because I feel Izzy hasn’t taken enough time,” Johnson said Wednesday on…
Ilia Topuria is the new UFC featherweight champion following his highlight reel knockout of former long reigning champ Alexander Volkanovski in the main event of UFC 298 event this past Saturday. With a new market to tap into, and a 27-year-old champion with superstardom written all over him, how big can it get for the Topuria era? On an all-new edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck reacts to Topuria’s win, what could be next, and the UFC getting into Spain. Additionally, topics include Volkanovski’s 145-pound title reign coming to an end, the reactions on social media…