MMA

The UFC’s plans for UFC 272 lasted about two days. Former featherweight champion Max Holloway pulled out of his title rematch against current champ Alexander Volkanovski after aggravating an injury Thursday, according to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. Dana White announced the Volkanovski-Holloway fight on Tuesday, setting up a trilogy. In the two previous bouts, Volkanovski won

Just days after signing for a third fight with featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 272, former champion Max Holloway has been forced to withdraw from the bout. According to a report by ESPN, Holloway re-aggravated a prior injury. Volkanovski (23-1) defeated Holloway at UFC 245 in December 2019 to win the championship. The pair

7:49 AM ET Do you feel that? That, my friends, is the feeling of a brand new calendar year of MMA. A year in which anything seems possible. It’s time to dream big for 2022. We’ve got a fresh slate. The table is set for some incredible fights, breakthrough performances and stories that will go

A pair of anticipated championship bouts have been scheduled for UFC 272 with rivals Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski slated to cap their trilogy for the featherweight championship. Aljamain Sterling, meanwhile, will defend his bantamweight belt against interim champion Petr Yan in a rematch of their controversial UFC 259 fight that saw Yan disqualified for

Bellator MMA Ranked welterweights Neiman Gracie and Logan Storley take their next steps towards title contention at Bellator 274. The main card, announced by the promotion on Tuesday, is chock-full of other ranked fighters on the hunt for gold. Bellator 274 takes place at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, on Saturday, Feb. 19,

The UFC had one of the strongest groups of champions it has had in its history as 2021 ended. Welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, for instance, is not only the pound-for-pound best active fighter in the world, but a strong argument can be made that he’s surpassed Georges St-Pierre as the greatest welterweight of all time.

Dana White wasn’t shy about discussing the UFC’s success in 2021. The company generated the most money in its history, with mega-sponsorship deals with the likes of Crypto.com and DraftKings, among others. It sold the most pay-per-views it ever sold. On the business front, it was a grand slam home run in 2021 for the

Roman Reigns was going to try and defend his Universal Championship title against Brock Lesnar. (Photo by Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images) WWE star Roman Reigns won’t get a chance to defend his title against Brock Lesnar just yet. Reigns was a late scratch from WWE’s “Day 1” pay-per-view event in Atlanta on Saturday after he tested

Jake Paul is starting off his new year with a bang. The YouTuber turned boxer again called out UFC president Dana White on Twitter on Saturday morning with a wild post from his notes app. If White complies with his three demands, Paul said he will “immediately retire from boxing” and agree to a one-fight

8:28 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim The shiny brass-and-leather belts worn by UFC champions do not merely signify achievement and ascendance. For the select few fighters who earn them, these esteemed titles can bestow an aura of invincibility. Yet nothing is forever. Among the 12 weight classes in the UFC, seven fighters now wear championship belts

Getty Images If there was anyone most deserving of an MVP award following such a difficult 2020 for just about everyone across the landscape of professional sports, Dana White would’ve been an easy choice.   Despite his often controversial methods, the brash UFC president found a way to safely circumvent the many obstacles brought on

Miranda Maverick is one of the top prospects in MMA. The UFC flyweight won her first two bouts in the promotion, and probably deserved a decision over Maycee Barber when they met in July. But when Maverick met Erin Blanchfield at UFC 269 in November, she was never in the fight. Blanchfield didn’t enter the

The secret sauce that makes the UFC what it is is something that Dana White and Co. hold tight. Among the many things the UFC president has accomplished, he’s found a way to get his fighters to compete in the most fan-friendly style possible. There was an old saying in boxing that some still live

8:00 AM ET Every year in every sport brings ups and downs, memorable performances, the emergence of new stars. In mixed martial arts, the leading fight promotion, the UFC, has eight weight classes for men and four for women and ran 43 fight cards in 2021, making plenty of room available onstage for athletes to

2:08 AM ET UFC Hall of Famer Rashad Evans is returning from retirement — and now his opponent is set. Evans, the former UFC light heavyweight champion, will face Gabriel Checco on the Eagle FC United States debut card Jan. 28 in Miami, sources told ESPN on Wednesday night. Eagle FC is the MMA promotion

Getty Images All it takes is one punch, kick, spinning back elbow, or flying knee in the UFC. This year produced tremendous finishes that regularly had viewers endorsing them as Knockout of the Year. There is nothing quite as invigorating as a knockout in combat sports. Fighters want to deliver them as much as fight

Getty Images UFC fighters produced a dizzying array of classic fights in 2021. These remarkable athletes tested the breaking points of their body, mind and spirit in pursuit of fame, fortune and glory. Dozens of fighters deserve standing ovations for crafting the sort of violence that even the most conditioned fans winced at from the

9:00 AM ET This has been one of my annual columns for ESPN for a while now, and it’s always fun to look back at the previous year’s list to see which prospective fights, if any, came to fruition. So, before getting into the MMA fights I want to see in 2022, let’s take a