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Fight fans were not disappointed last night (Sat., Mar. 23, 2019) at UFC on ESPN+ 6 live on ESPN+ from inside Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee, as former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis made a successful welterweight debut by knocking out Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson with a superman punch in the second round (highlights here).
Fight of the Night: Bryce Mitchell vs. Bobby Moffett
Performance of the Night: Anthony Pettis
Performance of the Night: Randa Markos
Submitted Mar 24, 2019 11:26AM by JLS - 2 comments Filed under: UFC
Main card (ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET)
Stephen Thompson (170.5) vs Anthony Pettis (171)
Curtis Blaydes (262) vs Justin Willis (266)
John Makdessi (154.5) vs Jesus Pinedo (155.5)
Jussier Formiga (126) vs Deiveson Figueiredo (126)
Luis Pena (148.5) vs Steven Peterson (146)
Maycee Barber (126) vs JJ Aldrich (125)
Undercard (ESPN+ at 5 p.m. ET)
Bryce Mitchell (145.5) vs Bobby Moffett (145.5)
Marlon Vera (135.5) vs Frankie Saenz (135.5)
Alexis Davis (125) vs Jennifer Maia (126)
Randa Markos (116) vs Angela Hill (116)
Ryan MacDonald (135.5) vs Chris Gutierrez (135.5)
Eric Shelton (126) vs Jordan Espinosa (126)
Two former top lightweights will meet in a key welterweight clash in New York.
Rafael dos Anjos and Kevin Lee are set to fight in the 170-pound main event of UFC Rochester on May 18, officials told the Democrat & Chronicle. This will be Lee’s first welterweight appearance in the Octagon.
Submitted Mar 21, 2019 6:04AM by JLS - 1 comment Filed under: UFC
Former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold will move up to light heavyweight to fight Jan Blachowicz at UFC 239 on July 6 in Las Vegas, multiple sources tell ESPN.
Rockhold, also the former Strikeforce middleweight champion, most recently fought for the interim UFC middleweight title against Yoel Romero in February 2018, losing by third-round KO. He has stated publicly in recent months that he was open to a move up to light heavyweight due to a strenuous weight cut.
Submitted Mar 20, 2019 10:47AM by JLS - 4 comments Filed under: UFC
Tom Breese is out of his UFC London fight with Ian Heinisch.
Breese’s management confirmed the story to MMA Fighting following an initial post from Heinisch that stated that the British middleweight had been forced from the event due to health concerns.
Submitted Mar 16, 2019 11:18AM by JLS - 0 comments Filed under: UFC
An unbeaten Brazilian has joined the UFC.
Norma Dumont, winner of four MMA bouts in less than three years as a professional, has signed a multi-fight deal with the UFC, Dumont announced on her social media.
On Monday, Conor McGregor was arrested in Miami, Fla. on charges of strong-armed robbery and criminal mischief. Per the arrest affidavit, McGregor and the alleged victim, Ahmed Abdirzak of England, were both exiting the Fountainebleu Hotel (home of the world-famous nightclub, Liv) at around 5:20 a.m. Monday when Abdirzak attempted to take a photo of McGregor with his phone. McGregor allegedly slapped the phone out of Abdirzak’s hand to the floor, then stomped on it several times, before picking the phone up and walking off with it, and according to Abdirzak, that’s exactly what happened.
Conor McGregor has been arrested in Florida.
The former UFC two-division champion is being charged on two counts for allegedly smashing a fan’s phone early Monday outside a famous Miami Beach hotel, the Miami Beach Police Department confirmed with MMA Fighting.
UFC will make its return to Florida for a UFC Fight Night event on April 27, and while the main event isn't the one many had anticipated over the past few weeks, it's still a middleweight matchup that will draw in a lot of attention. UFC president Dana White confirmed to ESPN on Thursday that Yoel Romero will return to the Octagon in the main event to face off with Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza. This will serve as the rematch to their bout in 2015 which saw Romero emerge with a controversial split-decision victory.
Submitted Mar 11, 2019 5:26PM by JLS - 0 comments Filed under: UFC
A strawweight tilt with championship implications is set for UFC 238, as Tatiana Suarez will square off against Nina Ansaroff in Chicago on June 8. The contest had originally been rumored for UFC 237 in Brazil.
The Las Vegas-based promotion confirmed the matchup to the Chicago Tribune, along with a women’s flyweight clash pitting Joanne Calderwood against Katlyn Chookagian. UFC 238 takes place at the United Center and airs on pay-per-view. The card will reportedly feature a flyweight championship bout between Valentina Shevchenko and Jessica Eye.
Suarez has kicked off her professional tenure with seven consecutive triumphs, including four under the UFC banner. Most recently, the 28-year-old Millennia MMA representative scored a dominant third-round TKO victory against Carla Esparza at UFC 228.
Submitted Mar 11, 2019 5:19PM by JLS - 5 comments Filed under: UFC
Check out which fighters won performance bonuses from UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. dos Santos.
The Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas was home to a passable night of fights. The card saw three (T)KOs, three submission, and seven decisions, including one split-decision.
Performances of the Night: Niko Price, Beneil Dariush
Fight of the Night: Junior dos Santos and Derrick Lewis
Submitted Mar 9, 2019 11:41PM by JLS - 4 comments Filed under: UFC
The UFC is heading to Rio de Janeiro, and the promotion made many match-ups official Friday.
With Rose Namajunas vs. Jessica Andrade for the strawweight championship at the Jeunesse Arena on May 11, the pay-per-view event will also feature the return of former featherweight king Jose Aldo against surging contender Alexander Volkanovski.
MMA training is hard enough on its own. For Jeff Hughes, there was a time when he had to deal with something just as grueling in addition to that.
Hughes, now a UFC heavyweight, had a day job doing roof shingle deliveries in his hometown of Canton, Ohio, up until last summer. The worst part of that gig? Working in the hot, sticky Midwestern summer bare-chested for 13 hours and then having to head over to practice.
Anyone who has seen Furious 7 will tell you that Ronda Rousey is not the world’s greatest thespian. But either she’s getting better at acting, or she’s getting tired of her career in professional wrestling.
Recently, the WWE has been building toward a triple threat match for the Raw women’s title between Rousey, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, likely as the main event of WrestleMania on April 7 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The match would be the first-ever women’s main event at a WrestleMania should this happen, but yesterday, Rousey broke the cardinal rule of professional wrestling, releasing a video on her personal Vlog where she angrily said that wrestling is scripted and she wasn’t playing by those rules anymore because at the end of the day, she could legitimately beat up every woman in the company.
Speaking recently with the Into the Weeds podcast, Johnson backtracked his previous statements about staying retired, revealing that he would still come out of retirement to face Jon Jones, provided Jones moved up to heavyweight.
“The only way I’d come out of retirement is if Jon Jones goes to heavyweight, and then that’s when I’ll come out of retirement and fight Jon,” Johnson said. “I mean, that’s the only guy I want to fight, because after him, I can officially say I did my job, my mission is complete. Although I didn’t win a title, I fought the best of the best. I can go to sleep at night.”
UFC 235 went down last night from Las Vegas, Nevada. The card was absolutely stacked where two titles were on the line as Jon Jones looked to defend his belt against Anthony Smith and Tyron Woodley looked to defend his strap against Kamaru Usman. As well, Ben Askren made his long-awaited UFC debut when he took on Robbie Lawler.
Ultimately, Jones ended up beating Smith by unanimous decision in what was a dominating performance for Jones. Usman meanwhile kept his promise of hearing ‘And New’ as he simply mauled Woodley. He out-wrestled him and outpaced him all night long which was the difference. There could have been multiple 10-8 rounds and Usman is the new welterweight champion. Askren meanwhile had a controversial submission win over Lawler after nearly getting knocked out.
Submitted Mar 3, 2019 8:39PM by JLS - 3 comments Filed under: UFC
UFC 234 may have had a lot of people talking about it and watching the prelims on Feb. 9, but the late loss of the main event didn’t help pay-per-view numbers.
Early estimates have the show, headlined by Israel Adesayna’s three-round decision win over Anderson Silva, doing 175,000 buys. The card, held at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia, was thin when it came to star power to begin with, and then took a hit when middleweight champion Robert Whittaker suffered a hernia and collapsed bowel right before fight time. This led to the last-day cancellation of the Whittaker title defense against Kelvin Gastelum.
Mackenzie Dern won’t be fighting any time soon in the UFC, and it’s for a good reason.
The undefeated strawweight, who last competed in the UFC in May 2018, announced on Friday that she’s expecting a baby with her boyfriend Wesley Santos, a professional surfer from Brazil.
Make it three Performance of the Night bonuses in three fights for Johnny Walker.
The 26-year-old Brazilian continued his tear through the light heavyweight division Saturday at UFC 235 in Las Vegas, needing just 36 seconds to land a sensational jumping knee and finish Misha Cirkunov. Walker was given one of the evening’s $50,000 post-fight bonuses for his work, which should go along way towards making him feel better after injuring himself while celebrating.
Colby Covington made his presence felt all throughout UFC 235 fight week — and Saturday night was no exception.
The brash 31-year-old had a cageside seat for UFC 235’s welterweight title fight between Tyron Woodley and Kamaru Usman, in which Usman dominated Woodley en route to capturing the belt with a one-sided unanimous decision. With his bright red MAGA hat and interim strap in tow, Covington made himself an ever-present figure during the contest. And as the clock wound down on Usman’s victory, several members of the media noticed UFC president Dana White walk over to Covington and have a discussion with the controversial welterweight.
So what did White say?
