MMA

6:35 PM ET Brett Okamoto Close ESPN Staff Writer MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun Marc Raimondi What were the biggest moments at UFC Fight Night in London? Brett Okamoto and Marc Raimondi offer up their takeaways from an action-packed event in England. What does the UFC

Getty Images For nearly the entirety of UFC London, the local fans had been given plenty to cheer about. That came to a very unfortunate end in the heavyweight main event as Tom Aspinall suffered a knee injury that ended his fight with Curtis Blaydes in just mere moments. Aspinall stayed true to his word,

Paul Craig is ranked eighth in the UFC’s light heavyweight division, one spot ahead of Volkan Oezdemir, whom he will fight Saturday on the main card of UFC Fight Night in London. That makes sense, given that Craig has won five in a row and six of his last seven. His last three victories were

Tom Aspinall has been increasingly impressive in each of his five UFC bouts, all of which he’s finished. In his last time out, he stamped himself a legitimate contender for the heavyweight title by submitting Alexander Volkov with a straight armbar in the first round. Aspinall’s performance was met with rave reviews. But Aspinall said

Getty Images Those who have been waiting to see Sean O’Malley take a major step up in competition appear to be just months away from getting their wish. O’Malley announced on ESPN’s “DC and RC” that he is fighting former bantamweight champion Petr Yan at UFC 280. “I’m getting a fight that I wanted and

8:25 AM ET Jeff WagenheimESPN Chris Curtis dreamed about fighting inside the Octagon for over a decade as a professional mixed martial artist. Now that his UFC debut was happening, though, it was turning nightmarish. He was in a UFC 268 prelim last November in New York, and Curtis was getting beaten to the punch

Despite the anticlimactic ending, Yair Rodriguez did what he had to do Saturday and scored the win over Brian Ortega. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC) The disappointment at the ending of the featherweight bout between Yair Rodriguez and Brian Ortega on Saturday at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, will probably never fully dissipate. There’s

Getty Images Lauren Murphy is far from finished with the UFC women’s flyweight elite. Murphy defeated former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate in a three-round decision at UFC Fight Night in Long Island on Saturday. Murphy and Tate fought for 15 hard minutes to open Saturday’s main card. Their outputs on the feet were

Brian Ortega suffered an apparent shoulder injury against Yair Rodriguez in the first round of their main event bout at UFC Long Island. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC) Yair Rodriguez was landing clean, hard punches and had just connected on a front kick. Brian Ortega had just taken Rodriguez down, where he wanted the fight

9:05 AM ET The UFC is amid a busy summer schedule, coming off International Fight Week two weeks ago. Next up is UFC on ABC this weekend (Saturday, main card on ABC/ESPN+ at 2 p.m. ET, prelims on ESPN/ESPN+ at 11 a.m.), with a big-time main event between Brian Ortega and Yair Rodriguez. From there,

“I should be on a postage stamp, because that’s the only way I’ll ever get licked,” Muhammad Ali once said. Peter Villegas, the chairman of the California State Athletic Commission, joined the board of the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky, in February. An avowed Ali fan, he’d even named his daughter, Alisandra, or Ali,

There has been a lot of reporting this week that Yair Rodriguez will fight for the UFC’s featherweight title next if he gets past Brian Ortega on Saturday in the main event of UFC on ABC 3 in Elmont, New York. Now, that could well happen, but Rodriguez admits he was promised no such thing,

Getty Images Jiri Prochazka vs. Glover Teixeira might just get a sequel. The fighters put forth an all-time classic at UFC 275 in June and the reigning UFC light heavyweight champion is ready to move forward with a rematch. Prochazka defeated Teixeira to capture the 205-pound belt in a thrilling back-and-forth contest. Looking ahead at the

11:34 AM ET Few would dispute that UFC men’s featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and former champ Max Holloway are the two best 145-pounders in MMA. Right behind them? We might find out on Saturday afternoon, when Brian Ortega meets Yair Rodriguez in a matinee main event of UFC Fight Night in Elmont, New York. Ortega

Rafael Fiziev earned his sixth straight win in the UFC Saturday with a late knockout of Rafael dos Anjos at UFC Vegas 58 in Las Vegas. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC) LAS VEGAS — The list of contenders in the lightweight division keeps growing. The latest to establish himself as a bona fide contender is

Getty Images UFC Fight Night will serve as a proving ground to determine which Rafael is ready to make a run at the lightweight elite. Former UFC champion Rafael dos Anjos and three-time Kyrgyzstan Muay Thai champion Rafael Fiziev headline the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday, July 9. Dos Anjos (31-13) has looked

Jul 6, 2022 Shortly after former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos dropped the belt in 2016, he moved up to welterweight, where he had an up-and-down run against the iron of the 170-pound division. He won three in a row to earn a shot at an interim championship, but a loss in that fight

Twelve fights are lined up for UFC Vegas 58 this Saturday night, but we have all been anxiously awaiting the main event since February. Finally, after two previously scheduled bouts were scrapped, Top 10 lightweights Rafael Fiziev and Rafael dos Anjos are set to square off in the Octagon for the main event. Let’s hope