MMA

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.

12:49 AM ET Carlos Contreras Legaspi The fight between bantamweights Aspen Ladd and Macy Chiasson that was scratched from Saturday’s UFC event has been rescheduled for Oct. 2, sources said. The card has not yet been announced by the promotion. The original matchup was postponed just hours before Friday’s weigh-ins due to a Chiasson injury.

8:00 AM ET Scott Coker took the reins of Bellator MMA in 2014 with a firm plan for growth. The longtime combat sports promoter was going to apply some of the principles that worked well when he ran Strikeforce, from its first MMA event in March 2006 until it was acquired by the UFC’s parent

6:59 PM ET The UFC has had to make several changes to its Fight Night card for Saturday in Las Vegas. The scheduled co-main event pitting rising heavyweights Shamil Abdurakhimov and Chris Daukaus was removed from the card due to COVID-19 protocols involving Daukaus’ camp, UFC officials told ESPN on Tuesday. In addition, a welterweight

4:58 PM ET LOS ANGELES — Vitor Belfort says he is already in talks about his future in boxing, even before his foray into the ring against Oscar De La Hoya in September. Belfort, one of the most accomplished knockout artists in UFC history, told ESPN on Tuesday that he is planning a boxing match

1:02 PM ET Clay Collard’s quest for $1 million resumes in August. The MMA veteran, who made a name for himself last year in the boxing world, is two wins away from winning the PFL 2021 lightweight championship and one of the six $1 million prizes. He will face Raush Manfio in the semifinals of

4:52 PM ET A rematch of one of the best title fights in UFC welterweight history is on deck. Kamaru Usman, ranked as ESPN’s top pound-for-pound MMA fighter, will defend his UFC welterweight title in a second fight with Colby Covington in the main event of UFC 268 in November, UFC president Dana White told

7:44 AM ET Saturday’s UFC Fight Night main card featured close calls throughout, with a pair of split decisions and a majority decision in the last five fights of the night. The judges had a tough job, but did they get the biggest fight of the night — the high-stakes bantamweight clash between TJ Dillashaw