MMA

4:41 PM ET LAS VEGAS — The UFC’s 2021 will wrap up with a heavyweight main event, as Derrick Lewis will meet Chris Daukaus during UFC Fight Night at the Apex on Saturday. It’s a redemption spot for Lewis (25-8), who is coming off a knockout loss to Ciryl Gane in August for the interim

LAS VEGAS — The UFC made an aggressive match for Chris Daukaus, who until Dec. 1 was only a part-time fighter. On Saturday in the main event of UFC Fight Night at Apex, Daukaus will face Derrick Lewis, who in his last fight competed for the interim heavyweight title. Daukaus quit his job as a

LAS VEGAS — Derrick Lewis is coming off a one-sided loss to Ciryl Gane in an interim heavyweight title fight in which he accomplished very little offensively. It was a disappointing performance, but it also must be noted that in fighting Gane, he was facing arguably the most athletic and gifted heavyweight ever. Gane’s movement

Getty Images UFC kicks off its 2022 pay-per-view schedule with a big bang between heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou and interim titleholder Ciryl Gane. Plus, a firecracker co-main event between flyweight king Brandon Moreno and former champ Deiveson Figueiredo to close out their trilogy. UFC 270 takes place from the Honda Center in Anaheim on Jan.

8:00 AM ET There’s always some fluidity in the MMA rankings, but often that movement happens at a glacier’s pace. In this latest update of the ESPN divisional rankings, however, there are two brand-new No. 1s and also the return of a former champion. Leading the way is Julianna Peña, who moves up from No.

Not long after Dustin Poirier lost his fight for the UFC lightweight belt at UFC 269, he made a deal with the reigning champion, Charles Oliveira.  “I would like to donate $20,000 to the hometown where he’s from,” Poirier told Oliveira and his translator. “You [Oliveira] pick where the money goes.”  The two embraced and

LAS VEGAS — Julianna Peña quietly danced in her corner as bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes made the long walk to the cage for their title fight Saturday in the co-main event of UFC 269 at sold-out T-Mobile Arena. For more than five years, Peña had waited for this moment since Nunes won the title at

Dustin Poirier congratulates Charles Oliveira of Brazil after their UFC lightweight championship bout during UFC 269 on Dec. 11, 2021 in Las Vegas. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC) LAS VEGAS — It took Charles Oliveira a long time just to get a UFC title shot, but now that he has the lightweight belt, he seems

LAS VEGAS — Julianna Peña called her shot and scored one of the biggest upsets in MMA history Saturday at UFC 269 at T-Mobile Arena. After being dropped twice in the first round and fighting the last half of it with black belt Amanda Nunes going for a submission, Peña made history in the second.

Getty Images Dustin Poirier gets another chance to capture his first world championship on Saturday night when he takes on lightweight champion Charles Oliveira in the main event of UFC 269. The action goes down from Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena and airs live on pay-per-view. There is another title bout set for the night, with

8:00 AM ET COCONUT CREEK, Fla. — Dustin Poirier was at a crossroads early in his career. It was May 2012, and he had just lost his first UFC main event to Chan Sung Jung. It was Poirier’s third UFC fight, and he was only 23 years old. But he felt like he needed a

LAS VEGAS — Charles Oliveira’s career can be defined by one word: Resiliency. His lightweight-title winning effort over Michael Chandler at UFC 262 in Houston in May might be a microcosm of his entire career: He was winning. He was losing. He was winning again. Then he was losing and in real trouble. On and

LAS VEGAS — Julianna Peña has made what are, quite frankly, puzzling comments in the buildup to her fight against bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in the co-main event of UFC 269. Peña has said that Nunes has been ducking her and knew she was a bad matchup. That’s silly given

Getty Images After two big-money fights with Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier is finally ready to step into the Octagon and attempt to claim the UFC lightweight championship. Poirier will face off with champion Charles Oliveira in the main event of UFC 269 on Dec. 11 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Oliveira won the then-vacant

8:00 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim UFC 269 is not just the promotion’s final pay-per-view event of 2021, it also is among the year’s best offerings. Wrap up Saturday night’s event in colorful paper and put a big, bright bow on this holiday season gift for fans. There are two championship fights — one of them

A former featherweight champion stopped the ascension of a serious bantamweight contender Saturday night – and may have put himself back in the title mix one more time. Jose Aldo (31-7 MMA, 13-6 UFC) started slow in the first against Rob Font (19-5 MMA, 9-4 UFC), but turned it up in every other round and

Getty Images When former two-time champion Jose Aldo made the decision to drop from featherweight to bantamweight, it felt like a desperate move in the late stages of a legendary career. Aldo has found new life at 135 pounds, however, and he’ll look to run his winning streak to three on Saturday when he faces

8:34 AM ET Jose Aldo‘s first fight in Las Vegas was more than 12 years ago: a WEC featherweight title bout against Mike Brown on Nov. 18, 2009. The WEC held a series of open workouts that week inside Palms Casino Resort, and the 23-year-old Aldo shed tears as he addressed the media. For an