Page 16 - Top MMA News and Mixed Martial Arts Headlines

The lineup is set for the Professional Fighters League’s next show, which will be its second straight in New York. PFL 5, like PFL 4 this past week, takes place at NYCB Live in Uniondale, N.Y., on Long Island. The main card airs on NBCSN following prelims on Facebook Live. The event will feature regular-season fights in the lightweight and light heavyweight divisions The PFL 5 lineup includes: NBCSN CARD (NBCSN, 9 p.m. ET) Brian Foster vs. Natan Schulte Brandon Halsey vs. Vinny Magalhaes Luiz Firmino vs. Rashid Magomedov Rakim Cleveland vs. Maxim Grishin Will Brooks vs. Robert Watley FACBOOK CARD (Facebook Live, 6:30 p.m. ET) Artur Alibulatov vs. Dan Spohn Efrain Escudero vs. Islam Mamedov Arthur Estrazulas vs. Thiago Tavares Yuki Kawana vs. Chris Wade

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A tournament bout between Fedor Emelianenko and Chael Sonnen is official for Bellator 208. As reported this past week, Emelianenko (37-5 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) and Sonnen (31-15-1 MMA, 1-2 BMMA) are slated to headline the Oct. 13 event. The show, Bellator 208, takes place at NYCB LIVE’s Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y. (on Long Island), and it airs on Paramount (and also streams on DAZN) following prelims on MMAjunkie.

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UFC 230, which marks the UFC’s return to New York City, has its first fight. Officials today confirmed a previously rumored fight between David Branch (22-4 MMA, 4-3 UFC) and Ronaldo Souza (25-6 MMA, 8-3 UFC) for the November card (via Twitter) UFC 230 takes place Nov. 3 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass, though the full fight card and bout order haven’t been finalized.

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Anthony Smith, Manny Bermudez, Danny Roberts and David Zawada each earned $50,000 bonuses for their performances at today’s UFC Fight Night 134 event. Smith and Bermudez each won “Performance of the Night” honors. Roberts and Zawada earned the “Fight of the Night.” UFC officials announced the winners following the event. Smith (29-13 MMA, 6-3 UFC) dropped an absolute destruction on former light heavyweight champion Mauricio Rua (25-11 MMA, 9-9 UFC) in the main event. “Shogun” seemed to clip Smith early, but Smith recovered and put together a massive barrage that left Rua out cold in 89 seconds. It was his second straight win over a former champion after moving up to 205 pounds from light heavyweight.

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The “Korean Zombie” is coming back, and he’s got the matchup he wants. A featherweight showdown between Frankie Edgar and Chan Sung Jung will headline UFC Fight Night 139 on Nov. 10 at Pepsi Center in Denver. UFC President Dana White confirmed the booking to MMAjunkie following initial reports by BJPenn.com and ESPN.com.

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The chance for fireworks – and blood, lots of blood – at the UFC’s 25th anniversary show just increased by a lot.

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A high-profile middleweight bout is in the works for the UFC’s next event in New York City. Ronaldo Souza and David Branch are expected to face off at UFC 230 later this year, ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reported Thursday night. UFC officials have yet to confirm the news. The UFC wanted Souza vs. Branch to headline its upcoming event in Sao Paulo, Brazil this September, but the timing was too soon for Souza. Instead, the pair of 185-pound contenders will meet two months later in November.

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UFC welterweight Muslim Salikhov failed a drug test and has been notified of a potential UFC anti-doping policy violation. The promotion today released a statement confirming the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s notification of a potential violation, which stems from an out-of-competition drug test conducted June 7 in Russia. Salikhov (14-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) was unbooked at the time of his potential violation. Two days ago, however, he wrote on his Instagram page that he was preparing for a UFC fight.

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A light heavyweight bout between Sam Alvey and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira is the latest addition to September’s UFC Fight Night 137 lineup. A team source confirmed the planned Alvey (33-10 MMA, 10-5 UFC) vs. Nogueira (22-8 MMA, 5-5 UFC) matchup to MMAjunkie, though UFC officials have not yet made a formal announcement of the booking. It was first reported by Combate. UFC Fight Night 137 takes place Sept. 22 at Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo. The event airs on FS1 following early prelims on UFC Fight Pass, though the full card and bout order haven’t been finalized. The latest UFC Fight Night 137 card now includes: Belal Muhammad vs. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos Alex Chambers vs. Livia Renato Souza Sam Alvey vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

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After the initial surgery didn’t take, Paige VanZant went back under the knife today to repair the damage sustained to her arm in her most recent UFC fight. VanZant (7-4 MMA, 4-3 UFC) suffered a broken right arm in her unanimous-decision loss to Jessica-Rose Clark (9-6 MMA, 2-1 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 124 in January. She had surgery shortly after the flyweight contest, but months later it was discovered the healing process wasn’t going well. Likely a product of returning to training “too quickly”, doctors decided a second procedure was best for VanZant to make a complete recovery. Today in Las Vegas, “12 Gauge” had a nearly four hour operation where bone fragments were taken from the hip and moved to the arm. She is now recovering and will return home to Portland on Monday, MMAjunkie confirmed with a member of her team.

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UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway is still searching for answers after he was forced to withdraw from UFC 226, but it appears progress is being made. Holloway (19-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) pulled out of his scheduled title defense against Brian Ortega (14-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) on fight week with concussion-like symptoms and was taken to the hospital multiple times in the days leading up to the bout. The 145-pound champ was showing some worrisome signs, and his team decided to pull him out of the fight. There has been little in the way of medical updates from “Blessed” since. UFC President Dana White promised to exhaust all resources to find the solution to Holloway’s condition, and that includes extensive testing. Apparently that testing began today, as Holloway is in Las Vegas and shared an update from the doctor’s office (via Instagram)

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It didn’t take long for the UFC to find a replacement opponent for Angela Hill. After Alexa Grasso was forced to withdraw from the card due to undisclosed reasons, Cortney Casey (7-6 MMA, 3-5 UFC) will now step in to fight Hill (8-4 MMA, 3-4 UFC) in a strawweight matchup next month at UFC Fight Night 135. A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed the new matchup with MMAjunkie. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity since UFC officials haven’t made a formal announcement. ESPN.com first reported the news. The latest UFC Fight Night 135 bout now includes: Justin Gaethje vs. James Vick Cortney Casey vs. Angela Hill Andre Fili vs. Michael Johnson Antonio Braga Neto vs. Andrew Sanchez Eryk Anders vs. Tim Williams Iuri Alcantara vs. Cory Sandhagen Deiveson Figueiredo vs. John Moraga Luke Sanders vs. Rani Yahya Joanne Calderwood vs. Kalindra Faria Drew Dober vs. Jon Tuck Mickey Gall vs. George Sullivan Bryan Barberena vs. Jake Ellenberger

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English heavyweight Phil De Fries will defend his KSW title on home soil. KSW officials today told MMAjunkie that De Fries (15-6) will put his title on the line against Polish challenger Karol Bedorf (15-3) in the main event of KSW 45, which takes place Oct. 6 at London’s Wembley Arena. The full card streams live on KSWTV.com.

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Although a Tyron Woodley vs. Colby Covington title-unification bout seemed like the obvious next direction for the UFC welterweight division, a twist involving Darren Till has now emerged. Earlier today, Till (17-0-1 MMA, 5-0-1 UFC) took to social media and revealed he’d been offered a title shot against Woodley (18-3-1 MMA, 8-2-1 UFC). He said interim champ Covington (14-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) is “out” and that the promotion wanted to book him against “The Chosen One” instead, but the fight was declined (via Twitter)

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A key strawweight bout between Angela Hill and Alexa Grasso won’t be taking place at UFC Fight Night 135. Hill (8-4 MMA, 3-4 UFC) needs a new opponent for next month’s event after Grasso (10-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC) was forced to withdraw from the matchup for undisclosed reasons. MMAjunkie verified the change with a person with knowledge of the situation. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity since UFC officials haven’t made a formal announcement. ESPN.com first reported the news. The latest UFC Fight Night 135 bout now includes: Justin Gaethje vs. James Vick Angela Hill vs. TBA Andre Fili vs. Michael Johnson Antonio Braga Neto vs. Andrew Sanchez Eryk Anders vs. Tim Williams Iuri Alcantara vs. Cory Sandhagen Deiveson Figueiredo vs. John Moraga Luke Sanders vs. Rani Yahya Joanne Calderwood vs. Kalindra Faria Drew Dober vs. Jon Tuck Mickey Gall vs. George Sullivan Bryan Barberena vs. Jake Ellenberger

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Volkan Oezdemir has been forced out of an announced bout for the third time in two months. After visa issues prevented him from fighting at a May event in Chile and this weekend’s event in Germany, Oezdemir (15-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) has now withdrawn from his scheduled UFC 227 fight against Alexander Gustafsson (18-4 MMA, 10-4 UFC) due to injury. MMAjunkie verified the change with a person with knowledge of the situation. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity since UFC officials haven’t made a formal announcement. ESPN.com first reported the change. The latest UFC 227 card now includes: Champ T.J. Dillashaw vs. Cody Garbrandt – for bantamweight title Champ Demetrious Johnson vs. Henry Cejudo – for flyweight title Alexander Gustafsson vs. TBA J.J. Aldrich vs. Polyana Viana Renato Moicano vs. Cub Swanson Benito Lopez vs. Ricky Simon Brett Johns vs. Pedro Munhoz Irene Aldana vs. Bethe Correia Kyung Ho Kang vs. Ricardo Ramos Danielle Taylor vs. Weili Zhang Sheymon Moraes vs. Matt Sayles Alex Perez vs. Jose Torres Wuliji Buren vs. Marlon Vera

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The Bellator heavyweight grand-prix semifinal-round fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Chael Sonnen appears to have a date. Emelianenko (37-5 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) and Sonnen (31-15-1 MMA, 1-2 BMMA) are slated to headline an Oct. 13 event in New York. Newsday.com first reported the matchup, though Bellator officials haven’t made a formal announcement, and a message from MMAjunkie wasn’t immediately returned. The event is expected to take place at NYCB LIVE’s Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, home to in Uniondale, N.Y. (on Long Island), and it’s expected to air on Paramount following prelims on MMAjunkie. A day prior, the other half of the grand-prix semifinals – Matt Mitrione (13-5 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) vs. Ryan Bader (25-5 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) – takes place in Connecticut.

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The (new) main event is set for UFC Fight Night 136, which marks the UFC’s debut in Russia. As previously reported, Mark Hunt (13-12-1 MMA, 8-6-1 UFC) has replaced former heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum (23-8-1 MMA, 11-5 UFC), who’s sidelined by a potential doping violation, and now fights Aleksei Oleinik (56-11-1 MMA, 5-2 UFC). The latest UFC Fight Night 136 card includes: Mark Hunt vs. Aleksei Oleinik Shamil Abdurakhimov vs. Andrei Arlovski Omari Akhmedov vs. C.B. Dollaway Merab Dvalishvili vs. Terrion Ware

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Marlon Vera will look to break a two-fight losing streak when he next steps into the octagon, and he’ll do it on short notice. UFC officials today announced that Ecuadorian bantamweight Vera (10-5-1 MMA, 4-4 UFC) will step in for India’s Bharat Kandare (5-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) and face China’s Wuliji Buren (9-4 MMA, 0-1 UFC) at UFC 227, which takes place Aug. 4 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The UFC 227 lineup currently includes: Champ T.J. Dillashaw vs. Cody Garbrandt – for bantamweight title Champ Demetrious Johnson vs. Henry Cejudo – for flyweight title Alexander Gustafsson vs. Volkan Oezdemir J.J. Aldrich vs. Polyana Viana Renato Moicano vs. Cub Swanson Benito Lopez vs. Ricky Simon Brett Johns vs. Pedro Munhoz Irene Aldana vs. Bethe Correia Kyung Ho Kang vs. Ricardo Ramos Danielle Taylor vs. Weili Zhang Sheymon Moraes vs. Matt Sayles Alex Perez vs. Jose Torres Wuliji Buren vs. Marlon Vera

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Paul Daley is headed to Bellator’s welterweight grand prix. Bellator President Scott Coker today told MMAjunkie that Daley (40-16-2 MMA, 6-3 BMMA) has signed a multi-fight, multi-year deal and is the 10th entrant into the promotion’s multi-stage competition, which kicks off Sept. 29 in San Jose, Calif. Daley’s tournament debut is not yet confirmed. News of Daley’s inclusion was first reported by ESPN.com. Although ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reported the current plan is for Daley to face rival Michael Page in the tournament’s first round, Coker said he has yet to be officially matched up with an opponent, as the promotion is considering a matchup between Page and Lorenz Larkin. Daley, however, could still be paired with Page (13-0 MMA, 9-0 BMMA) if both parties agree.

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