MMA news

Jan 9, 2023 Nassourdine Imavov meets short-notice replacement Sean Strickland in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas. The fights at the UFC Apex are on ESPN+, with the 7 p.m. ET main card preceded by prelims at 4 p.m. Both fighters typically compete at middleweight — Strickland is No.

Jan 5, 2023 The televised debut of Dana White’s Power Slap League has been delayed by one week, less than four days after White admitted to a physical altercation with his wife on New Year’s Eve. A UFC official told ESPN that the Power Slap League will now debut Jan. 18 on TBS, rather than

Jan 7, 2023 Victoria Lee, one of the most promising young prospects in all of mixed martial arts, has died at age 18. Lee, who was the younger sister of ONE Championship’s Angela Lee and Christian Lee, died Dec. 26, according to a social media post made by Angela. Victoria was born in Hawai’i but

Jan 9, 2023 The UFC’s first main event of 2023 has taken a hit, as Kelvin Gastelum has withdrawn from a five-round middleweight bout against Nassourdine Imavov on Saturday in Las Vegas. Gastelum withdrew due to an injury to his mouth, sources told ESPN. Middleweight contender Sean Strickland has agreed to replace Gastelum on the

Jan 9, 2023 Carlos Contreras Legaspi Former MMA fighter Phil Baroni was charged by a state judge in Mexico with aggravated femicide Monday. Baroni, 46, was living in the coastal region of Sayulita and San Francisco in Bahía de Banderas, Nayarit, when he called police Jan. 1, after finding his girlfriend, a woman from Mexico

Jan 11, 2023 Jeff WagenheimESPN Usman Nurmagomedov has been Bellator lightweight champion for less than two months, and already he is being asked to run a gantlet of challengers. Bellator MMA announced Wednesday that it will launch a Lightweight World Grand Prix in March, with Nurmagomedov defending his title as part of an eight-fighter field

Jan 12, 2023 A suspended MMA coach at the center of an ongoing betting scandal in the UFC has acted as an agent for an offshore bookmaking operation for years, multiple sources who placed bets with him told ESPN. James Krause, 36, has worked as an agent — the term for a middleman between offshore

1:09 PM ET Sara CoelloESPN Close Sara Coello is a writer in ESPN’s investigative and enterprise unit. Before joining, they wrote about legal issues and crime for The Charlotte Observer, The Post and Courier and The Dallas Morning News. Coello studied sociology, journalism and Spanish at The University of Dallas. The public is unlikely to

Jan 12, 2023 Just days away from UFC’s opening fight card of the new year, ESPN is back with the second installment of its annual MMA Rank. Using a two-step voting process, ESPN’s MMA contributors set out to project which 30 fighters will perform the best in 2023. The final list features fighters from multiple

8:52 AM ET The 2023 MMA calendar gets underway this weekend, and it intensifies next week when UFC 283 is headlined by a pair of championship fights. But a truly game-changing moment for the sport arrives next month in a collision of ESPN’s No. 1 and No. 2 pound-for-pound fighters. When UFC men’s featherweight champion

American Kickboxing Academy head coach Javier Mendez says Cain Velasquez isn’t leaving the public eye amidst his ongoing trial. Velasquez was released on bail just a few months ago after eight months behind bars. He was accused of the attempted murder of an alleged child molester, Harry Goularte, last year. Velasquez still faces a lengthy

It’s safe to say that UFC middleweight contender Sean Strickland isn’t a fan of England or its royal family. Strickland will step up on short notice to face Nassourdine Imavov in the UFC Vegas 67 main event this Saturday. Kelvin Gastelum withdrew from the fight due to a mouth injury, and Strickland will face Imavov

UFC Welterweight Champion Leon Edwards has confirmed that he will be facing Kamaru Usman at UFC 286 in London, England. At UFC 278 last August, Leon Edwards pulled off arguably the greatest come-from-behind victory in promotion history when he knocked out Kamaru Usman in the final round to take home the welterweight title. After the

Political commentator Candace Owens recently gave her two cents on Andrew Tate’s current legal predicament. The controversial influencer was arrested late last month on allegations of human trafficking. Currently, Tate is serving a 30-day detention in Romanian custody while investigations surrounding him, his brother Tristan, and two unnamed associates are carried out. Andrew Tate reached

UFC Vegas 67 takes place live tomorrow night from Las Vegas, Nevada, and MMA News is here to bring you the official weigh-in results! The first UFC event of 2022 finally goes down tomorrow night, featuring two top-15 middleweights battling in the main event in a light heavyweight bout. Sean Strickland will try to swiftly

Chael Sonnen believes that a defeat to Jon Jones would significantly damage the reputation of UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou. Jones, a former two-division titleholder at 205 pounds, hasn’t been in action since a successful title defense opposite Dominick Reyes in 2020. Soon after, he vacated the belt and expressed his desire to achieve championship

Raquel Pennington feels that Ketlen Vieira is unfairly getting most of the attention ahead of their fight at UFC Vegas 67. “Rocky” is currently on a four-fight win streak that began with a unanimous decision against Marion Reneau in 2020. The last time Pennington put together that kind of a winning run she ended up

UFC and Strikeforce welterweight legend Nick Diaz recently had some choice words for a fellow longtime UFC fan favorite. Tony Ferguson has long been renowned for his eclectic array of offense in the Octagon. A freestyle wrestler in his youth, ‘El Cucuy’ sought tutelage in boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Wing Chun as his