Do you have a hot MMA story or news item that you have found and would like to share?
Then read our guidelines then post it to our MMA News Share Forum to have it display here for the community to read on this page.
As debuts of heavily hyped MMA prospects go, they don’t get much worse than Aaron Pico.
The good news, though, is that the 20-year-old Bellator lightweight will have a chance to make up for it sooner than later.
Bellator President Scott Coker told ESPN today that Pico (0-1 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) has been tabbed to fight on the main card of Bellator 183, which takes place Sept. 23 at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., and airs on Spike. An opponent for Pico is still in the process of being finalized.
Bellator MMA CEO Scott Coker had high expectations for Bellator NYC, the promotion’s second attempt at pay-per-view television, and the first under his watch. The promotion reported that their first attempt in 2014 did just over 100,000 buys.
“This is not something we’re going to go in and out of,” said Coker three weeks before the event, to Brett Okamoto for ESPN.com. “This is something we’re committed to. The company is committed to doing PPV fights.”
New Bellator signee Gegard Mousasi will make his debut for the promotion in October.
Bellator officials today announced that Mousasi (42-6-2 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) will face Alexander Shlemenko (56-9 MMA, 12-3 BMMA) in the main event of Bellator 185, which takes place Oct. 20 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.
Additionally, top light heavyweights clash as Muhammed Lawal faces Liam McGeary.
Bellator bantamweight champion Eduardo Dantas (20-4 MMA, 10-1 BMMA) will look for the third consecutive defense of his title later this year when he meets Darrion Caldwell (10-1 MMA, 7-1 BMMA).
Bellator officials today announced the bout will headline an Oct. 6 event, expected to serve as Bellator 184, at WinStar World Casino and Resort in Thackerville, Okla.
Bellator 181 weigh-in results include:
MAIN CARD (Spike, 9 p.m. ET)
Derek Campos (155.4) vs. Brandon Girtz (157.7)
Kendall Grove (185.7) vs. John Salter (185)
Emily Ducote (124.4) vs. Jessica Middleton (125.9)
Steve Garcia (134.5) vs. Joe Warren (135.9)
PRELIMINARY CARD (MMAjunkie, 6 p.m. ET)
Guillermo Gomez (169.4) vs. Fernando Trevino (170.5)
Jordan Howard (135) vs. Johnny Marigo (135.1)
Katy Collins (124.2) vs. Bruna Vargas (125)
Valentin Moldavsky (234.8) vs. Carl Seumanutafa (263.6)
Justin Lawrence (145.6) vs. Treston Thomison (145.9)
Rafael Lovato (185.6) vs. Mike Rhodes (185.2)
E.J. Brooks (170.9) vs. Guilherme Vasconcelos (169.2)
Amanda Bell (144.2) vs. Brittney Elkin (146)
Andre Fialho (169.9) vs. A.J. Matthews (169.9)
Kemmyelle Haley (170.1) vs. Logan Storley (170.3)
Romero Cotton (185.1) vs. Aaron Rodriguez (184.8)
William Florentino (170.9) vs. Jonathan Gary (169.1)
Date: August 25, 2017
Venue: Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, NY
TV: SpikeTV/Spike.com
Fight Card:
170lbs- Andrey Koreshkov (19-2) vs. Chidi Njokuani (17-4-1)
170lbs- Fernando Gonzalez (26-14) vs. Brennan Ward (14-5)
145lbs- Georgi Karakhanyan (26-7-1) vs. Daniel Pineda (22-12)
145lbs- Noad Lahat (11-2) vs. Henry Corrales (13-3)
145lbs- Sinead Kavanagh (4-1) vs. Arlene Blencowe (9-6)
145lbs- AJ McKee (8-0) vs. Blair Tugman (10-6)
A women’s featherweight clash between Talita Nogueira and Gabrielle Holloway has been added to the Bellator 182 lineup.
The California-based promotion confirmed the pairing on Thursday. Bellator 182 take place at Turning Stone Casino in Verona, N.Y., on Aug. 25 and is headlined by a welterweight duel between Andrey Koreshkov and Chidi Njokuani.
Nogueira was supposed to make her promotional debut at Bellator 163 against Marloes Coenen, but the bout was canceled when the Brazilian missed weight by more than five pounds. The 31-year-old jiu-jitsu specialist owns a 6-0 career mark, although she has not competed since 2013.
New UFC interim middleweight champion Robert Whittaker and successful UFC debutant Justin Gaethje were the big winners from the most recent edition of the UFC’s annual International Fight Week – and it’s reflected in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA rankings.
Whittaker, who defeated Yoel Romero in UFC 213’s headliner, is now No. 2 at middleweight – and he also made his debut in the pound-for-pound rankings.
Gaethje, a former WSOF champ who beat lightweight vet Michael Johnson in a thrilling “Fight of the Year” candidate in The Ultimate Fighter 25 Finale’s main event, moved from No. 7 to No. 4 in the division.
Gegard Mousasi was willing to compete for the Bellator middleweight championship in his promotional debut, but it looks like that’s not happening right away.
A day after Mousasi announced on The MMA Hour that he left the UFC to sign a 6-fight deal with Bellator, the promotion’s middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho told MMA Fighting he signed his next title defense.
"The plan continues the same,” Carvalho said on Tuesday. "I signed the contract today to fight Alessio Sakara in December, so it's done.”
According to the middleweight champion, the fight will take place Dec. 9 in Florence, Italy.
On the same day Gegard Mousasi’s Bellator signing was made official, another one of the promotion’s free agent pickups has been forced to withdraw from her scheduled debut.
Bellator today announced Valerie Letourneau (8-6 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) has suffered an injury and is out of Friday’s women’s flyweight bout with Emily Ducote (5-2 MMA, 3-1 BMMA). She will be replaced by Jessica Middleton (2-1 MMA, 2-1 BMMA).
Featherweight prospect Brittney Elkin is set to make her Bellator debut on Friday night at “Bellator 181: Campos vs. Girtz 3” in Thackerville, Okla.
Elkin (3-3 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) steps in on short notice to face Amanda Bell (4-4 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) in a rematch from April 2014. Bell’s original opponent for Friday’s card, Alexis Dufresne, withdrew from the event due to undisclosed reasons, leaving an opportunity for Elkin to sign on for her most high-profile fight to date.
Via our friends at MMA Sucka!
If the reports are true, Bellator has just added a massive name to their lacking middleweight division in the form of former Strikeforce Champion Gegard Mousasi.
The ongoing saga of Michael Page and Paul Daley doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon, but at least there’s timeline fans can now attach to the two English rivals.
Following Page’s latest social media salvo, which declared that Daley had turned down a planned September grudge match between the Bellator welterweights, Bellator president Scott Coker revealed on The MMA Hour that Page vs. Daley was still in his promotion’s plans, but that the match-up would have to wait until early 2018 due to insistence on Daley’s part.
Ryan Bader will likely defend his newly captured Bellator light heavyweight title before the year is over, according to Bellator president Scott Coker.
“Bader should fight ‘King Mo’ (Muhammed Lawal) next,” Coker said Monday on The MMA Hour. “King Mo’s ready to go down to 205 and ready to fight before the end of the year, so maybe we’ll have Bader and King Mo before the end of the year.”
Perhaps the greatest benefit to Bellator’s recent pay-per-view event was the fact it set up some notable matchups for the future.
Bellator NYC took place Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York, and the main card aired on pay-per-view following the Bellator 180 prelims on Spike and MMAjunkie.
Chael Sonnen (29-15-1 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) won the main event while Matt Mitrione (12-5 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) scored a big knockout victory in the co-headliner. Douglas Lima (29-6 MMA, 11-2 BMMA) defended his welterweight strap while Brent Primus (8-0 MMA, 6-0 BMMA) and Ryan Bader (23-5 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) claimed gold.
It took three years for Bellator to do its second pay-per-view show, but based on talk by Bellator and Spike executives, it won't be that long of a wait for the third go-around.
"I think we were trending all night, we were No. 1 on Twitter all night," Bellator president Scott Coker said Saturday night after Bellator NYC. "This night had a lot of heat and was promoted extremely well. This was our first one, so we're excited to come back and do a pay-per-view maybe the beginning of next year and keep going. We're not going to just do it every month, but when we do this, there will be mega fights and big events just like this."
There are no guarantees in the fight game. Bellator's prized prospect, 20-year-old Aaron Pico, learned that the hard way on Saturday.
Making his professional mixed martial arts debut at Bellator: NYC, Pico (0-1) suffered a 24-second defeat at the hands of 33-year-old Zach Freeman. The lightweight fight took place inside Madison Square Garden.
Saturday’s Bellator NYC card has a little bit of everything.
In the main event, there’s a grudge match seven years in the making. The co-main event features the return of an MMA legend making his Bellator debut. Before that, three champions will put their titles on the line.
BELLATOR NYC (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)
-Chael Sonnen (205.8) vs. Wanderlei Silva (205.8)
-Fedor Emelianenko (236.4) vs. Matt Mitrione (256.6)
-Champ Douglas Lima (170) vs. Lorenz Larkin (169.8) – for welterweight title
-Champ Michael Chandler (153.8) vs. -Brent Primus (154.2) – for lightweight title
-Zach Freeman (155.8) vs. Aaron Pico (156)
BELLATOR 180 (Spike, 8 p.m. ET)
-Champ Phil Davis (204.8) vs. Ryan Bader (204.4) – for light heavyweight title
-James Gallagher (144.4) vs. Chinzo Machida (146)
-Neiman Gracie (170.4) vs. Dave Marfone (170.4)
-Heather Hardy (125.2) vs. Alice Yauger (125.6)
PRELIMINARY CARD (MMAjunkie, 6 p.m. ET)
-Ryan Couture (168.8) vs. Haim Gozali (169.2)
-Jerome Mickle (155.8) vs. Anthony Giacchina (157.4)**
-John Salgado (168.2) vs. Hugh McKenna (168.8)
-Matt Rizzo (133.6) vs. Sergio da Silva (137.6)
-Nate Grebb (155.4) vs. Bradley Desir (160.6)*
*Desir missed lightweight limit by 4.6 pounds
**Giacchina missed lightweight limit by 1.4 pounds
It’s nearly impossible to escape Mike Golberg’s voice if you’re watching a UFC promo. As the fight organization’s play-by-play commentator for 20 years, there’s hardly a big fight that doesn’t have his stamp.
Goldberg’s signature call – “It is all over!” – is indelibly linked to the industry-leader. So when he lends his commentary to Bellator’s second pay-per-view effort, Bellator NYC, it’s not a stretch to say some of the more casual fans of MMA might be confused.
But according to Bellator chief Scott Coker, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
