MMA

Getty Images With an absolutely loaded main card, featuring a pair of title fights, Saturday’s UFC 280 pay-per-view event from Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi offers a little something for every type of mixed martial arts fan.  Former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira looks to regain the 155-pound title he dropped on the scales in May

Charles Oliveira shrugged when apprised of the comment that coach Javier Mendez made to Submission Radio about Islam Makhachev. Oliveira and Makhachev will meet on Saturday (2 p.m. ET, ESPN+ PPV) at Etihad Arena in the main event of UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The lightweight division has long been one of

Oct 15, 2022 Jeff WagenheimESPN Alexa Grasso showed Saturday she has fully settled in as a flyweight, winning her fourth fight in a row since bulking up from strawweight two years ago. Her conquest in the main event of UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas came by unanimous decision against a fellow top-10 contender in

Getty Images Champion Jiri Prochazka and Glover Teixeira are running it back. The pair of top light heavyweights will clash at UFC 282 inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, Dec. 10. UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell confirmed the UFC light heavyweight title fight’s booking to Sports Illustrated. It is a

Alexa Grasso and Viviane Araujo have more than nine years between them of fighting in the UFC. There is, as Grasso points out, a lot in common between them. Grasso is ranked fifth at flyweight and Araujo is sixth, and each woman has only three losses. Araujo is 11-3 overall and 5-2 in the UFC.

It’s been an unusual few weeks for mixed martial arts fans without fights going off every weekend, but the action is returning with six straight events that will carry us through mid-November. Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night: Grasso vs. Araujo features a five-round main event between two women’s flyweight contenders looking to push themselves one

Oct 7, 2022 Marc Raimondi Brett Okamoto Close ESPN Staff Writer MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun Due to a grinding UFC schedule that features cards nearly every week of the year, it’s tough for every event to feature fighters the world clamors for. As a result

1:52 PM ET The UFC has added a key welterweight matchup between Geoff Neal and Shavkat Rakhmonov to an event on Jan. 14, sources told ESPN on Saturday. Contracts have not been signed but both welterweights have agreed to the three-round contest, sources told ESPN. The UFC Fight Night event is expected to take place

Georges St-Pierre has offered some advice to UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya. St-Pierre (26-2 MMA, 20-2 UFC), a former two-division champion and UFC Hall of Famer, defended his welterweight title nine times before he relinquished the belt and stepped away from the sport in 2013. St-Pierre cited the pressure of being champion as one of

Combate Global The world bantamweight championship is on the line at Combate Global on Friday night as David Martinez vs. Axel Osuna holds the marquee spot in the latest fight card presented by the mixed martial arts organization. Bantamweight champion Martinez (8-1) has spent most of his career stunning fans and opponents under the Combate

Le’Veon Bell’s boxing career will continue when he makes his professional debut later this month. The former NFL running back will face former UFC fighter Uriah Hall on Oct. 29 in Phoenix as part of the Jake Paul versus Anderson Silva card, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Bell, 30, is coming off a knockout win

Bellator MMA Henry Cejudo says it’s time for a featherweight super fight. Alexander Volkanovski and Patricio Pitbull continue to clear out their divisions and have cemented themselves as the pound-for-pound bests in their respective promotions. In the aftermath of Bellator 286, Cejudo says it’s time for UFC president Dana White and Bellator president Scott Coker

Oct 3, 2022 Jeff WagenheimESPN Followers of MMA need no introduction to Anderson Silva. But for those combat sports fans who follow just boxing as well as those social media mavens drawn to boxing merely by the presence of YouTube personality Jake Paul, there is much to know about Silva, who will face Paul in

Yan Xiaonan moves to 16-3 and closer to a strawweight title shot after her win over Mackenzie Dern on Saturday. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC) Mackenzie Dern is one of the most decorated jiu-jitsu artists ever to compete in the UFC, and that ability may yet lift her to a world championship. But it was

Bellator MMA Bellator MMA returns to Long Beach on Saturday for Bellator 286. The card features several of the biggest names on the Bellator roster and promises some thrilling action. In the main event, Patricio Pitbull will defend his featherweight title against top contender Adam Borics. Former featherweight champion AJ McKee will also be in

8:22 AM ET Jeff WagenheimESPN It’s not easy being No. 2. You’re habitually overlooked, an afterthought, banished to the background. But every so often, the orchestra’s second fiddle gets to step under the bright lights at center stage and show their stuff. This autumn brings several opportunities for Bellator MMA to take more of the

LAS VEGAS — For many years, Mackenzie Dern has dreamed of facing an opponent who is aggressive and who comes out looking to take her head off. Dern is one of the most accomplished grapplers ever in mixed martial arts, though she’s been spending a lot of time with coach Jason Parillo working on her

LAS VEGAS — There are first overall draft picks, and then there are guys like LeBron James, Peyton Manning and Sidney Crosby. They are the greats among the great, guys who aren’t only stars but change the fortunes of the franchise and the city that lands them. “Dana White’s Contender Series” has essentially turned into