Do you have a hot MMA story or news item that you have found and would like to share?
Then read our guidelines then post it to our MMA News Share Forum to have it display here for the community to read on this page.
The UFC has officially announced a date and an opponent for Gokhan Saki’s promotional debut.
One of the best strikers in the game, Saki will enter the Octagon for the first time on Sept. 23, facing Henrique da Silva in a light heavyweight contest at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.
Saki (0-1) only competed once under MMA rules, losing via TKO in 2004, but made his name in the kickboxing world, winning the Glory light heavyweight championship in 2014.
Bellator 181 weigh-in results include:
MAIN CARD (Spike, 9 p.m. ET)
Derek Campos (155.4) vs. Brandon Girtz (157.7)
Kendall Grove (185.7) vs. John Salter (185)
Emily Ducote (124.4) vs. Jessica Middleton (125.9)
Steve Garcia (134.5) vs. Joe Warren (135.9)
PRELIMINARY CARD (MMAjunkie, 6 p.m. ET)
Guillermo Gomez (169.4) vs. Fernando Trevino (170.5)
Jordan Howard (135) vs. Johnny Marigo (135.1)
Katy Collins (124.2) vs. Bruna Vargas (125)
Valentin Moldavsky (234.8) vs. Carl Seumanutafa (263.6)
Justin Lawrence (145.6) vs. Treston Thomison (145.9)
Rafael Lovato (185.6) vs. Mike Rhodes (185.2)
E.J. Brooks (170.9) vs. Guilherme Vasconcelos (169.2)
Amanda Bell (144.2) vs. Brittney Elkin (146)
Andre Fialho (169.9) vs. A.J. Matthews (169.9)
Kemmyelle Haley (170.1) vs. Logan Storley (170.3)
Romero Cotton (185.1) vs. Aaron Rodriguez (184.8)
William Florentino (170.9) vs. Jonathan Gary (169.1)
Date: August 25, 2017
Venue: Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, NY
TV: SpikeTV/Spike.com
Fight Card:
170lbs- Andrey Koreshkov (19-2) vs. Chidi Njokuani (17-4-1)
170lbs- Fernando Gonzalez (26-14) vs. Brennan Ward (14-5)
145lbs- Georgi Karakhanyan (26-7-1) vs. Daniel Pineda (22-12)
145lbs- Noad Lahat (11-2) vs. Henry Corrales (13-3)
145lbs- Sinead Kavanagh (4-1) vs. Arlene Blencowe (9-6)
145lbs- AJ McKee (8-0) vs. Blair Tugman (10-6)
A women’s featherweight clash between Talita Nogueira and Gabrielle Holloway has been added to the Bellator 182 lineup.
The California-based promotion confirmed the pairing on Thursday. Bellator 182 take place at Turning Stone Casino in Verona, N.Y., on Aug. 25 and is headlined by a welterweight duel between Andrey Koreshkov and Chidi Njokuani.
Nogueira was supposed to make her promotional debut at Bellator 163 against Marloes Coenen, but the bout was canceled when the Brazilian missed weight by more than five pounds. The 31-year-old jiu-jitsu specialist owns a 6-0 career mark, although she has not competed since 2013.
A neck injury has forced Alessio Di Chirico to withdraw from UFC on FOX 25.
Stepping in for the Italian fighter is LFA middleweight champ and octagon newcomer Eryk Anders, who will make his short-notice UFC debut, multiple people with knowledge of the situation told MMAjunkie. They requested anonymity because the information hadn’t yet been made public.
Unlike Gegard Mousasi, lightweight Joseph Duffy opted to re-sign with the UFC in free agency.
“Irish” Joseph Duffy is staying in the UFC.
The rising lightweight contender has signed a new seven-fight deal, according to his manager Graham Boylan, who confirmed the news to MMA Fighting. Duffy had planned to test the free agent market after his contract had expired, and did reject the UFC’s initial offer to keep him. In May, Bellator president Scott Coker did confirm that they were in talks with Duffy.
Fresh off a “Fight of the Year” candidate in his UFC debut, lightweight Justin Gaethje will coach “The Ultimate Fighter 26” opposite ex-champ Eddie Alvarez.
UFC President Dana White confirmed the news today to veteran MMA personality Luke Thomas on the third stop of “The Money Tour” in New York. The promotion has yet to make a formal announcement on the coaches.
New UFC interim middleweight champion Robert Whittaker and successful UFC debutant Justin Gaethje were the big winners from the most recent edition of the UFC’s annual International Fight Week – and it’s reflected in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA rankings.
Whittaker, who defeated Yoel Romero in UFC 213’s headliner, is now No. 2 at middleweight – and he also made his debut in the pound-for-pound rankings.
Gaethje, a former WSOF champ who beat lightweight vet Michael Johnson in a thrilling “Fight of the Year” candidate in The Ultimate Fighter 25 Finale’s main event, moved from No. 7 to No. 4 in the division.
In the main event of UFC Fight Night 112, lightweight Michael Chiesa was in a rear naked choke and appeared on the verge of going out when referee Mario Yamasaki stopped the fight with 23 seconds to go, awarding the fight to Lee. Chiesa immediately protested, and later appealed the loss with the Oklahoma State Athletic Commission. OSAC executive director Joe Miller.
After a 16-month layoff, UFC welterweight Siyar Bahadurzada says he’s got a date for his return.
According to Bahadurzada (22-6-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC), he’s set to welcome World Series of Fighting veteran Abu Azaitar (12-1-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) into the octagon at UFC Fight Night 115, which takes place Sept. 2 at Ahoy Rotterdam in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Gegard Mousasi was willing to compete for the Bellator middleweight championship in his promotional debut, but it looks like that’s not happening right away.
A day after Mousasi announced on The MMA Hour that he left the UFC to sign a 6-fight deal with Bellator, the promotion’s middleweight champion Rafael Carvalho told MMA Fighting he signed his next title defense.
"The plan continues the same,” Carvalho said on Tuesday. "I signed the contract today to fight Alessio Sakara in December, so it's done.”
According to the middleweight champion, the fight will take place Dec. 9 in Florence, Italy.
On the same day Gegard Mousasi’s Bellator signing was made official, another one of the promotion’s free agent pickups has been forced to withdraw from her scheduled debut.
Bellator today announced Valerie Letourneau (8-6 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) has suffered an injury and is out of Friday’s women’s flyweight bout with Emily Ducote (5-2 MMA, 3-1 BMMA). She will be replaced by Jessica Middleton (2-1 MMA, 2-1 BMMA).
Featherweight prospect Brittney Elkin is set to make her Bellator debut on Friday night at “Bellator 181: Campos vs. Girtz 3” in Thackerville, Okla.
Elkin (3-3 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) steps in on short notice to face Amanda Bell (4-4 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) in a rematch from April 2014. Bell’s original opponent for Friday’s card, Alexis Dufresne, withdrew from the event due to undisclosed reasons, leaving an opportunity for Elkin to sign on for her most high-profile fight to date.
Sara McMann and Ketlen Vieira will have to wait a little longer before they meet inside the Octagon.
Originally announced for UFC 214, the bantamweight match-up is now set for the following pay-per-view, UFC 215, in Edmonton, Canada, on Sept. 9, multiple sources told MMA Fighting.
UFC president Dana White originally announced the bout for July 29, but sources said it the fight was actually booked for the Aug. 18 card. When the promotion pulled the plug on the Seattle card, McMann-Vieira was moved to Sept. 9.
Unbeaten heavyweight newcomer faces Luis Henrique at UFC 216 on September 9 in Edmonton.
Arjan Bhullar finally knows when he will step into the Octagon for the first time.
The 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medalist and 2012 Olympian will put his undefeated record on the line against Luis “KLB” Henrique (10-3, 1 NC; 2-2 UFC) at UFC 216 on Sept. 9 at Rogers Place in Edmonton. UFC representatives confirmed the booking with Province Sports on Wednesday morning.
UFC 216, which marks the UFC’s return to Canada, has two new bouts.
They include former flyweight title challengers Henry Cejudo (10-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC) vs. Wilson Reis (22-7 MMA, 6-3 UFC) and female bantamweights Sarah Moras (4-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) vs. Ashlee Evans-Smith (5-2 MMA, 2-2 UFC), officials announced via TSN.ca.
Alejandro Perez has been scheduled to make his first Octagon appearance of 2017.
The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America season 1 winner will be taking on Andre Soukhamthath in his home country of Mexico at UFC Fight Night 114. The news was recently announced by UFC Español.
Perez last fought to a controversial majority draw against Albert Morales back in September at UFC Fight Night 94. The 27-year-old bantamweight fighter is currently 3-1-1 in his UFC career, and 17-6-1 as a professional fighter. Meanwhile, Soukhamthath also fought Morales in his last bout, but lost via a split decision at UFC 209 in March. The bout with Morales was Soukhamthath’s UFC debut. The 28-year-old is 11-4 in his professional fighting career.
A new flyweight bout has been added to the UFC’s return to Mexico.
Undefeated prospects Joseph Morales and Roberto Sanchez have been scheduled to meet at UFC Fight Night 114 on Aug. 5. This bout will mark both fighters’ promotional debut. UFC Español announced the news on Monday morning.
Roberto Sanchez, who currently sports a professional MMA record of 7-0, is the currently LFA flyweight champion. The 31-year-old got a hold of gold in late June at LFA 14 where he submitted Jerome Rivera in the third round. Sanchez has five submission victories on his record. Meanwhile, his opponent Joseph Morales is 8-0 in his fighting career. The 22-year-old fighter last fought in March where he stopped Sean Santella at CFFC 64. Morales trains out of Team Alpha Male and was recently featured in Dana White ‘Looking for a Fight’.
Chase Sherman has agreed to step in for Christian Colombo and face Damian Grabowski at UFC on FOX 25.
Sherman (10-3) halted his two-fight losing streak last month at UFC 211, knocking out Rashad Coulter with an elbow. The win was his 10th finish, but first inside the Octagon.
Grabowski (20-4) has dropped his last two, as both Anthony Hamilton and Derrick Lewis have finished him. After winning 19 of his first 20 pro fights, the fighter from Poland has gone just 1-3 over his last four.
Mexico City’s UFC event this coming August just got a whole lot more exciting as MMA Today has exclusively learned that fan favorite welterweights Alan Jouban (15-5, 6-3 UFC) and Niko Price (9-0-1, 1-0-1 UFC) will face off in Mexico City Mexico in what could very well be the “Fight of the Night.” Alan “Brahma” Jouban is coming off his first loss in four fights which he suffered at the hands of Gunnar Nelson last March. Prior to that loss in London, Jouban was on an impressive three fight win streak which included wins over Mike Perry, Belal Muhammad and Brendan O’Reilly.
