Author: mmafighting
The highly anticipated heavyweight title unifier between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk has a new date. During a special breaking news edition of The MMA Hour, Saudi Arabia royal adviser – and Fury vs. Usyk promoter – Turki Alalshikh announced the fight will now take place on May 18. As an incentive, Alalshikh said if either fighter withdraws from the date, they will forfeit $10 million of their purse for the fight. “If Usyk is scared, I will call for [Anthony] Joshua vs. Tyson,” Alalshikh said. “If Tyson is scared, I will call for any fighter Usyk wants, and it’s…
Natalia Silva expects her teammate Paulo Costa to score a statement win in his return fight against Robert Whittaker. “Borrachinha” meets the former champion on Feb. 17 in the co-main event of UFC 298 in Anaheim, Calif., and Silva sees Costa scoring his first knockout finish since a 2018 drubbing of Uriah Hall. “If I were going to put my money on it,” Silva said on MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca podcast, “I believe in a victory by knockout.” Silva, who competes this Saturday opposite fellow Brazilian flyweight Viviane Araujo at UFC Vegas 85, is looking forward to Costa’s return after…
Viviane Araujo hopes to reinsert herself into the title conversation by stopping the rise of flyweight prospect Natalia Silva at Saturday’s UFC Vegas 85 event, and Araujo expects Alexa Grasso to still be sitting on the throne once she eventually gets there. The UFC has yet to announce who will challenge Grasso next following her split draw with Valentina Shevchenko in September 2023. In their first bout, the Mexican talent choked out “Bullet” in the fourth round to claim the 125-pound title. “I think it’s probably going to happen, a trilogy between the two next, which I didn’t want,” Araujo…
Renato Moicano wants to be one of the stars of the show when the octagon returns to Rio de Janeiro on May 4 for UFC 301, and he is expecting an “easy” fight that night. Moicano meets Drew Dober in the co-main event of Saturday night’s UFC Vegas 85 event at the UFC APEX, his first bout since a first-round finish over Brad Riddell at Madison Square Garden in November 2022, and has a name in mind for his next opponent after that: Dan Hooker. “I like UFC Brazil cards, not to mention they always bring easier opponents too,” Moicano…
TORONTO — Canada has had a rabid MMA fan base since the boom years of the UFC in the early 2000s, but the local scene has rarely matched that level of demand. That’s a problem Minister Neil Lumsden and his recently formed Ontario Combative Sport Advisory Council look to rectify in the country’s most populous province. With UFC 297 recently hitting Toronto, Lumsden and Council Chair Ned Kuruc answered questions about the goals of the council and how it plans to address the development of MMA on all levels. “Everyone here has experience in MMA and combat sports, we’ve been…
Alexander Volkanovski is ready to teach Ilia Topuria a lesson when they meet in the main event of UFC 298 for the featherweight title. The event takes place Feb. 17 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., and will serve as Volkanovski’s first fight since getting brutally knocked out by lightweight champ Islam Makhachev at UFC 294 in October. “The Great” sees the confidence in the challenger, and while he appreciates that from a promotional standpoint, Volkanovski doesn’t understand where that is all coming from. “He thinks he’s the best, but he’s going to be shown there are levels to…
The march to UFC 298 begins with the first of two APEX cards that are light on star power, but could help to shape the middleweight contender picture in the coming months. Roman Dolidze and Nassourdine Imavov headline Saturday’s UFC Vegas 85 event, with both looking to get back in the win column and make a statement at 185 pounds. Dolidze is coming off of a loss to one-time title challenger Marvin Vettori that snapped a four-fight win streak, while Imavov hopes for a more fruitful 2024 campaign after going winless in 2023. Both middleweights enter the main event with…
MMA Fighting has UFC Vegas 85 results for the Dolidze vs. Imavov 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, Roman Dolidze and Nassourdine Imavov face off in a battle of middleweight contenders. Dolidze hopes to rebound after a loss to Marvin Vettori this past March, while Imavov also looks to get back on track following a winless 2023 that saw him fall short against Sean Strickland then fight to a no-contest against Chris Curtis. Check out the UFC Vegas 85 results below.…
Tyson Fury appears to be out of his scheduled matchup with Oleksandr Usyk due to an accidental elbow. On Friday, Fury was forced out of his planned heavyweight unification bout with Uysk due to a nasty cut over his right eyebrow sustained during training. And after video was released of the incident, it appears that despite wearing headgear, it was an elbow that landed and cut Fury open. ‼️ Footage has now emerged appearing to show the moment Tyson Fury was cut by an ELBOW in sparring, causing the Oleksandr Usyk fight to be postponed… pic.twitter.com/dDy3e0Cv4o— Michael Benson (@MichaelBensonn) February…
Renato Moicano didn’t expect to get pulled into the drama surrounding Conor McGregor’s long-awaited return to the UFC, but somehow it happened. Before announcing plans for a showdown against Michael Chandler in June, McGregor mocked his fellow The Ultimate Fighter coach by tweeting, “Chandler-Moicano, now there is a [UFC 300] main event.” Moicano quickly fired back by writing, “Nah, I’m good, too easy,” but even he was caught off guard by the random mention on social media. Now just days away from his own fight at UFC Vegas 85, Moicano admits he didn’t have time to think about a response,…