Aug 4, 2021 After recently returning to Africa for the first time in nearly 30 years, UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman told ESPN that an MMA event on the continent could be even bigger than the legendary Rumble in the Jungle. Usman, who became the first UFC champion from Africa when he defeated Tyron Woodley
MMA
7:52 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim In 2019, the last time the Professional Fighters League staged their playoffs and crowned six $1 million winners, the champion of each division looked indomitable on their title runs. Now, after a lost 2020 season because of the COVID pandemic, the PFL is back with playoff semifinals set for three
10:02 PM ET The UFC is close to finalizing a middleweight main event between former title challengers Paulo Costa and Marvin Vettori in October, multiple sources told ESPN. The 185-pound bout is expected to headline UFC Fight Night on Oct. 23. UFC officials have not announced an official location for the event. Costa (13-1) has
10:17 PM ET Former UFC bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt is officially headed to a new weight class in 2021. Garbrandt (12-4) will take on New Zealand’s Kai Kara-France (22-9) in a non-title flyweight bout on Dec. 11, multiple sources told ESPN. The UFC has not yet announced an official event or location for that date,
11:28 PM ET The UFC has added a high-profile lightweight matchup between Rafael dos Anjos and Islam Makhachev to UFC 267. Both sides have agreed to the 155-pound contest, which will take place on Oct. 30. The UFC has not announced a venue for the event, but it is expected to take place in Abu
7:38 AM ET UFC 265 is set for Saturday and offers an interim heavyweight title clash as the headlining fight. Derrick Lewis faces Ciryl Gane in the main event, and if he’s able to win, Lewis would improve on one of the most impressive heavyweight resumes in UFC history. With so many big wins, including
12:47 AM ET INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Los Angeles, and the sport of mixed martial arts, has a new star athlete. The undefeated A.J. McKee submitted Patricio “Pitbull” Freire via guillotine choke at just 1 minute, 57 seconds of the first round to win the Bellator featherweight title Saturday night in the main event of Bellator
2:50 PM ET One of the biggest events in recent Bellator history is coming to the desert. The Bellator Light Heavyweight World Grand Prix semifinals will take place on the same card Oct. 16 at Footprint Center in Phoenix, sources told ESPN on Saturday. The event will be headlined by the semifinal bout between Bellator
2:33 PM ET The UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas has lost two more bouts at the last minute, according to promotional officials. The UFC announced on Saturday that a bantamweight matchup between Rani Yahya and Kyung Ho Kang and a welterweight clash between Niklas Stolze and Jared Gooden have both been removed from the
12:01 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim There’s nothing flashy about Sean Strickland, unless you’re counting the punches he relentlessly flashes into the face of his opponent. Strickland won his fifth fight in a row on Saturday night, overwhelming Uriah Hall with five rounds of aggression and nonstop punch output to win a lopsided unanimous decision in
5:34 PM ET The MMA world will feature elite action from Inglewood, California, and Las Vegas on Saturday night as Bellator and the UFC share the combat spotlight. Patricio “Pitbull” Freire will take on A.J. McKee at The Forum in one of the biggest bouts in Bellator history. The fight is the finale of the
7:38 PM ET The UFC is adding a lightweight matchup between Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler to its pay-per-view event in November, multiple sources told ESPN on Friday. Contracts have not been signed, but both parties have agreed to the 155-pound contest. The promotion has not officially announced a date or location for UFC 268,
Jul 27, 2021 Uriah Hall and Sean Strickland meet on Saturday in a clash of middleweights on winning streaks in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas. The fights at the UFC Apex will be on ESPN and ESPN+, with the main card starting at 9 p.m. ET and the prelims at
4:14 PM ET The career trajectory of the first-ever UFC women’s flyweight champion continues to be an odd one. Nicco Montano missed weight Friday morning by seven pounds and her women’s bantamweight bout with Wu Yanan was pulled from Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card, the promotion announced. The bout was contracted at a limit of
8:01 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Uriah Hall has won four fights in a row. Sean Strickland has won four fights in a row. On Saturday night, they meet to determine whose momentum will be supercharged. Hall (17-9) has been at center stage under the bright lights before. This weekend’s middleweight fight at the Apex in
1:08 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Amanda Nunes, the pound-for-pound best female fighter in the UFC, will have to wait a little longer for the next defense of her bantamweight championship. She tested positive for COVID-19, UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell told ESPN on Thursday, canceling her fight with Julianna Peña that was scheduled for
10:32 AM ET Carlos Contreras Legaspi Tatiana Suarez, who has been sidelined since UFC 238 in June 2019 because of a recurring bulging disc in her neck and various other minor setbacks, will again have to wait to make her return to the Octagon because of a knee injury. The injury will keep the 30-year-old
11:36 PM ET Chris Weidman has another hurdle to overcome after a gruesome broken leg sustained in a fight earlier this year. The former UFC middleweight champion wrote Wednesday on Instagram that he will need another surgery on the right leg he fractured in a fight with Uriah Hall at UFC 261 on April 24.