MMA Articles - Page 23

Jake Paul is making some progress with his fighter union — but there’s still plenty of roadblocks. Paul takes on Nate Diaz in a 10-round boxing match contested at 185 pounds on Aug. 5 in Dallas, Texas. While he’s preparing for what could be arguably his toughest test yet in the boxing ring — at […]

Once upon a time, the light heavyweight division was regarded as the premier weight class of the UFC. With names like Chuck Liddell, Rampage Jackson, Shogun Rua, Tito Ortiz, Jon Jones and more, it’s easy to see why MMA fans were excited whenever there was a major fight at 205-pounds. Fast forward to 2023 and […]

Khabib Nurmagomedov doesn’t believe Francis Ngannou will be able to land a power shot on Tyson Fury. It was recently announced that Fury would be boxing the former UFC heavyweight champion on Oct. 28 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Although the number of rounds were not known initially, it was later revealed to be 10 rounds. […]

UFC lightweight contender Michael Chandler couldn’t help but wax lyrical about Alexander Volkanovski. Volkanovski is coming off a dominant third-round TKO win over Yair Rodriguez in the UFC 290 headliner this past weekend. The nature of the win and his overall body of work not only saw him return to the top of the UFC […]

It’s been ages since we’ve seen Khamzat Chimaev in action. After fighting three times in his first two months in the UFC, “Borz” has only been in action twice since the start of 2022, with his last fight coming back in September last year. The good news is he’s all but set to return at […]

It’s now official — WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury will be boxing former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou. Contrary to reports of an exhibition, they will be competing in a professional boxing match taking place Oct. 28 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The fight will include three ringside judges using the 10-point must system. “I can’t […]

Robert Whittaker vows to come back stronger from his latest setback. Whittaker is coming off a second-round TKO defeat to Dricus du Plessis at UFC 290 this past weekend. “The Reaper” was a massive favorite going into the fight and a win would have set up a trilogy with Israel Adesanya at UFC 293. Instead, […]

As the boxing world continues to buzz with excitement, it has been confirmed that Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou will face off in a highly anticipated heavyweight showdown on October 28th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou will take place “under the official rules of professional boxing, with 3 judges ringside adopting […]

Chael Sonnen believes Israel Adesanya is coming for Conor McGregor‘s spot as the top draw in MMA. Adesanya is the current UFC middleweight champion and one of the most popular fighters on the roster. Additionally, “The Last Stylebender” has proven to be one of the top draws in the sport. That was further evident by […]

As has always been the case, there are hype trains in the UFC that the Las Vegas-based promotion is seemingly pushing behind the scenes. In some cases, it is blatant while in others, it is more subtle with favorable matchups for the fighter that is being pushed. Regardless of the case, MMA fans get excited […]

Daniel Cormier broke down the upcoming fight between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic. It was recently made official that Jones would defend his heavyweight title against Miocic in the UFC 295 headliner taking place Nov. 11 in Madison Square Garden, New York. It’s arguably the biggest fight of the year and there’s no better person […]

Yair Rodriguez is down, but not out. The Mexican striker failed in his attempt to unify the featherweight titles and become the new undisputed champion after suffering a third-round TKO defeat to Alexander Volkanovski in the UFC 290 headliner this past weekend. It was just his third loss in the UFC as well as just […]

Stipe Miocic gave his first reaction after his heavyweight title fight with Jon Jones was made official for UFC 295. In what is a fight that was all but slated to happen since March, it was finally announced by UFC president Dana White that Miocic and Jones would collide for the heavyweight title on Nov. […]

At UFC 290 last night, Israel Adesanya’s next title challenger was determined in Dricus du Plessis — and it’s exactly what the MMA scriptwriters ordered for. In fact, it should have been the fight right from the start, but the UFC decided to book Du Plessis against former champion Robert Whittaker with the winner set […]

Former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman wants Khamzat Chimaev to take things seriously. The pair have been rumored to fight for months, but nothing has come to fruition as of yet. That’s despite the expectation being that Chimaev will return to action at UFC 294 which takes place October in Abu Dhabi. Recently, Usman claimed […]

Going into Alexander Volkanovski’s title unification fight with Yair Rodriguez at UFC 290, the debate over who the featherweight GOAT was reignited once again. The choices ultimately come down to Volkanovski, Jose Aldo and Max Holloway, and there is certainly a case to be made for all of them. However, Alexander Volkanovski’s claim as the […]

Alexander Volkanovski’s win over Yair Rodriguez was made all the more impressive considering he needs surgery on his arm. Volkanovski earned the fifth defense of his featherweight crown following a dominant third-round TKO victory over Rodriguez at UFC 290 last night. Although he took Rodriguez to the ground the first two rounds as expected, Volkanovski […]

Alexander Volkanovski could find himself facing Islam Makhachev again this year. Volkanovski earned another defense of his featherweight title following a dominant victory over Yair Rodriguez in the UFC 290 headliner last night in Las Vegas. After taking Rodriguez down the first two rounds — and notably opening cuts on with some elbows in the […]

The next super fight in combat sports may soon be getting an announcement, as a boxing match between Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou is “expected to be announced very soon,” according to Ariel Helwani. Details of the fight have yet to be released, but it will likely be an exhibition boxing match that could turn […]

UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones is supposed to take on Stipe Miocic in his next title defense. If and when the fight does happen, Jon Jones is far from guaranteed to retain the championship, according to Francis Ngannou. Ngannou knocked out Miocic at UFC 260 to become the UFC heavyweight champion on March 27, 2021. […]

Brandon Moreno looks for the first defense of his title as flyweight champion when he takes on Alexandre Pantoja in a rematch in the UFC 290 co-headliner Saturday night. Moreno will be looking for revenge as he not only lost to Pantoja in their only professional meeting back in 2018, but was also submitted by […]

Alexander Volkanovski returns to the featherweight division when he battles the always-exciting Yair Rodriguez in a title unification clash in the UFC 290 headliner on Saturday night. Will the Aussie put on another masterclass like he did against the likes of Max Holloway and The Korean Zombie? Or will Rodriguez shock the world and inflict […]

UFC 290 takes place Saturday night in Las Vegas for International Fight Week with a number of intriguing matchups on the main card. In the headliner, we have Alexander Volkanovski battling Yair Rodriguez in a featherweight title unification fight. The co-main event, meanwhile, features a flyweight title fight as Brandon Moreno defends his crown and […]

It’s fair to say there’s some fatigue from the MMA community when it comes to Conor McGregor and his UFC return. McGregor is expected to return to action later this year, but there’s plenty of doubts and uncertainty as things stand. For one, he’s still yet to enter the USADA drug testing pool. Given that […]

It looks like Elon Musk actually took up UFC legend Georges St-Pierre’s offer. With rumors of a Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg fight heating up, St-Pierre offered to train with the Twitter owner to help him in preparation. Musk accepted the offer on Twitter and it didn’t take long for them to collaborate. On Monday, St-Pierre […]

Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping doesn’t expect Alexa Grasso to lose her title to Valentina Shevchenko. Grasso defends her women’s flyweight crown against Shevchenko in a rematch set to headline the UFC’s upcoming Fight Night event taking place Sept. 16 in Las Vegas. Their first meeting took place in March at UFC 285 and […]

Grant Dawson believes there’s no tougher weight class than the UFC lightweight division. Dawson earned arguably the biggest win of his career after outpointing Damir Ismagulov in their lightweight bout at UFC Vegas 76 this past weekend. In the process, he became just the third fighter to defeat Ismagulov — who now holds a 24-3 […]

Brandon Moreno has one big goal in combat sports before he hangs up his gloves. Moreno is set for his first title defense in his second reign as flyweight champion when he defends his 125-pound crown against Alexandre Pantoja in the co-main event of UFC 290 on July 8. While he’s focused on the present, […]

It looks like we could be getting Tyson Fury vs. Francis Ngannou after all — but with a twist. Fury was expected to fight Oleksandr Usyk not only earlier this year, but in a proposed Saudi Arabia mega card set to take place in December. That no longer seems to be the plan as things […]

There have been some great fights in the UFC in 2023 and some great ones still to come. After all, just some of the fights coming up include Alexander Volkanovski vs. Yair Rodriguez, Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje II, Jan Blachowicz vs. Alex Pereira and Aljamain Sterling vs. Sean O’Malley to name a few. However, […]

Glover Teixeira is a fan of Alex Pereira competing a light heavyweight. Pereira will make his debut at 205 pounds when he faces former champion Jan Blachowicz in the co-main event of UFC 291 taking place July 29 in Salt Lake City, Utah. It’s a move that follows Pereira’s first defeat in the UFC — […]

Conor McGregor was expected to fight Michael Chandler later this year and that still seems to be the plan on paper. However, things are extremely uncertain right now. McGregor is required to have two negative drug tests in a period of at least six months in the USADA testing pool in order to compete again. […]

Teddy Atlas had high praise for UFC featherweight contender Ilia Topuria. Topuria is coming off the biggest win of his career after enjoying a lopsided decision victory over former title challenger Josh Emmett at UFC Jacksonville this past weekend. The Georgian-Spanish fighter dropped and hurt Emmett as he put on a striking masterclass that put […]

Middleweight contender Marvin Vettori suffered a lopsided defeat against Jared Cannonier earlier this month at UFC Vegas 75 despite being a pre-fight betting favorite. It made it three defeats in his last five outings for “The Italian Dream” whose hopes of becoming a UFC champion — at least at 185 pounds — look pretty bleak […]

The UFC officially booked Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Kelvin Gastelum — and MMA Twitter reacted just about as expected. Gastelum’s return to 170 pounds won’t be an easy one by any means as per UFC president Dana White, he will face the undefeated Rakhmonov at the promotion’s Fight Night event taking place Sept. 16 in Las […]

Michael Bisping believes Jake Paul was very strategic in picking Nate Diaz as his next opponent. Diaz is the latest former UFC star to face Paul as he will make his boxing debut against the YouTuber-turned-boxer in a 185-pound, 10-round fight that takes place Aug. 5 in Dallas, Texas. Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn recently […]

Michael Chandler has still not given up hope on fighting Conor McGregor. Chandler is expected to face the Irishman in 2023 and although McGregor claimed a fight date — — likely to be December — would be announced towards the end of The Ultimate Fighter 31, there is plenty of uncertainty surrounding the contest. McGregor […]

UFC middleweight Dricus du Plessis acknowledges he trained with Israel Adesanya in the past — but says they never did any striking whatsoever. Adesanya recently revealed he trained with Du Plessis in Thailand back in 2014 when he had virtually zero MMA experience. The UFC middleweight champion revealed that while he was beaten in the […]

UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling doesn’t believe Sean O’Malley deserves to fight for the title. Sterling defends his 135-pound strap against O’Malley in the UFC 292 headliner taking place Aug. 19 at the TD Garden in Boston. It will be a first-ever title shot for O’Malley who, while on a five-fight winning streak and being […]