MMA

Dec 10, 2022 Jeff Wagenheim Raul Rosas Jr., who turned 18 years old just two months ago, became the youngest fighter ever to compete in the UFC on Saturday night, and his performance was dominant in a first-round submission of veteran bantamweight Jay Perrin during the prelims of UFC 282 at T-Mobile Arena in Las

9:54 PM ET The UFC light heavyweight title will be up for grabs this weekend — even without the participants who were originally scheduled to battle for the gold. Former champion Jan Blachowicz will take on Magomed Ankalaev in the main event of UFC 282 on Saturday in Las Vegas. The winner will take home

12:29 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Raufeon Stots fought and then he sang. After the split decision was read on Friday night and Stots was declared the winner of a Bellator 289 main event that had a fiery leadup littered with trash talk, Danny Sabatello stormed out of the cage, whereupon Stots grabbed his interviewer’s microphone

6:57 PM ET Kevin Holland isn’t the only one with an injured hand after a hard-fought UFC Fight Night main event last week. Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson wrote Friday on Twitter that he broke the second and third metacarpals in his left hand in the bout against Holland. Thompson won via TKO after the fourth round

9:05 PM ET Fight fixing is now a “huge concern” for the UFC amid several investigations into suspicious betting activity around a bout last month, UFC president Dana White told ESPN. A Nov. 5 UFC fight between Darrick Minner and Shayilan Nuerdanbieke is under scrutiny after a dramatic betting line movement in the hours before

9:00 AM ET There is a constant debate in MMA about when fighters may enter their prime. Some people believe it’s the late 20s. Others feel it’s early- to mid-30s. But none of that stops fans from looking for the best up-and-coming talent to follow, and, ultimately, see where they land. ESPN’s fourth annual ranking

4:46 AM ET London’s O2 Arena will host UFC 286 on March 18, the MMA promotion confirmed on Wednesday. It will be UFC’s third event to be held in London inside 12 months but only the second numbered event in history to the held in the UK. Its last installment was in 2016 as Michael

4:01 PM ET UFC star Israel Adesanya is likely to be cleared of charges after he was arrested last month in New York for possession of a weapon. The former UFC middleweight champion was given an “adjournment in contemplation of dismissal” Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for the Queens County District Attorney’s Office. That means

8:51 AM ET Paddy Pimblett made his UFC debut in September 2021. Two months later, the MMA prospect out of England traveled to the United States. Pimblett was accosted for photos in places like Times Square in New York and Yard House restaurant in San Diego. Fast-forward a little more than a year, and “The

10:12 PM ET Kayla Harrison‘s plans for the next year and beyond are very much up in the air. The two-time former PFL women’s lightweight champion told ESPN she is not sure what her next move will be, but her top priority is a rematch with Larissa Pacheco, who handed Harrison her first career loss

2:09 PM ET James Krause, the MMA coach at the center of a UFC betting controversy, is barred from attending or cornering any fighters at the Fighting Alliance Championship event on Friday in Independence, Missouri, sources told ESPN. Krause-trained fighters Gauge Young, Gina Mazany and Alexa Culp are on the card for FAC 17. The

2:24 PM ET Former UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler has been forced to withdraw from a bout against Santiago Ponzinibbio on Saturday due to an undisclosed injury, sources told ESPN. According to sources, the UFC is working on finding a potential replacement for Ponzinibbio (28-6). The 170-pound contest was scheduled to take place on the

Dec 5, 2022 ONE Championship is making its debut in the United States with one of the biggest fights the promotion can put on. All-time MMA great Demetrious Johnson will defend his ONE 135-pound title against Adriano Moraes in the main event of ONE on Prime Video 10 on May 5 in Broomfield, Colorado, the

8:28 PM ET TJ Dillashaw, one of the top bantamweight fighters in the history of MMA, has retired from the UFC, Dillashaw’s agent Tiki Ghosn confirmed to ESPN on Monday. Dillashaw, a former two-time UFC bantamweight champion, went into his title challenge against bantamweight champ Aljamain Sterling at UFC 280 in October with a bad

9:19 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim “There’s an enticing aura of unpredictability surrounding the main event of UFC 282.” That was the opening line in my original draft of this story. I wrote it shortly before Thanksgiving, figuring I’d smartly get a jump on assessing the final Octagon pay-per-view of the year. Who knew the unpredictability

4:31 PM ET Kevin Holland broke the third, fourth and fifth metacarpal bones in his right hand early in a loss to Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson on Saturday in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Orlando, Florida, Holland’s manager, Oren Hodak, told ESPN on Sunday. The injury came when Holland landed a right cross

2:09 AM ET Stephen Thompson proved he still has championship aspirations after a dominating performance over Kevin Holland in the main event of UFC Fight Night, but others in Orlando, Florida, found their way to shine as well. Brett Okamoto, Marc Raimondi and Jeff Wagenheim look at the biggest moments from an action-packed event in

1:46 AM ET ORLANDO — Don’t write Stephen Thompson out of the welterweight title picture just yet. Thompson (17-6-1) earned one of the biggest wins of his career Saturday, stopping Kevin Holland (23-9) in the fourth round via TKO. Holland’s head coach, Bob Perez, waved off the fight between the fourth and fifth rounds, as