MMA

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

UFC president Dana White and his family have all tested positive for COVID-19 after a Thanksgiving gathering, he said on Wednesday. White, speaking on “The Jim Rome Podcast,” said that he is now in isolation after a family trip to Maine for Thanksgiving. Everyone who attended the trip, he said, has now tested positive for

7:44 AM ET By the time fighters in Bellator and UFC return to their respective cages, on Friday and Saturday, the calendar will have flipped over to December. Although there are only a month’s worth of fights remaining in 2021, there’s still a lot left to be sorted out for both promotions. A lot of

Nick Cannon interviews Kubrat Pulev after his victory over Frank Mir at Triad Combat at Globe Life Field on November 27, 2021, in Arlington, Texas. (Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images) Frank Mir’s fight against Kubrat Pulev didn’t go well on Saturday night, and fans weren’t happy about it for a number of reasons. Mir was knocked out

Diego Sanchez said on Twitter that he has had complications with blood clots and pneumonia during his battle with the coronavirus. (Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC) Longtime UFC veteran Diego Sanchez has been hospitalized after a lengthy battle with COVID-19, he announced on Twitter. Sanchez, who has been keeping fans updated with his battle with the coronavirus

[embedded content] Joel Alvarez is confident his home country is ready to host a UFC event. The rising UFC lightweight contender would love to see a UFC card go down in Spain. Alvarez (19-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC), who’s from Gijon, Spain, thinks there’s a big enough fan base and support in the country to not

Getty Images A big lightweight showdown is set to headline UFC Fight Night on Feb. 27 when Beneil Dariush battles Islam Makhachev. The fight could determine a future title contender as both men will enter the fight on lengthy winning streaks. The fight was first reported by ESPN. Dariush will enter the fight riding a

Getty Images Former longtime UFC lightweight and welterweight Diego Sanchez is in the hospital battling COVID-19, according to his social media. Sanchez, 39, began sharing his complications with the virus last week when he recommended an antibody treatment, one which health officials have said can be effective but should not be prioritized over getting vaccinated.

7:59 AM ET Valentina Shevchenko was inside of a boxing gym in Newark, New Jersey, preparing to go on a run. It was the fall of 2019, and the next day Shevchenko would start filming an MMA movie alongside A-list star Halle Berry. To prepare for the shoot, Shevchenko was cutting weight, and the run