MMA News

Harry Kettle - May 4, 2025

UFC bantamweight Cory Sandhagen believes he caused Deiveson Figueiredo’s knee injury in his win at UFC Des Moines. Last night in the main event of UFC Des Moines, Cory Sandhagen showed up. He looked calm, confident and composed, and he managed to finish Deiveson Figueiredo. While some have opted to look at it as an injury-based TKO, others have correctly identified that it was Cory’s work that led to the injury. In picking up the win, he has vaulted himself right back into title contention – and in some style, too.

Chris Taylor - May 3, 2025

The Octagon returned to Iowa for tonight’s UFC Des Moines event, and four fighters wound up taking home performance bonuses. The fight card was headlined by a key men’s bantamweight matchup between Cory Sandhagen and Deiveson Figueiredo. The highly anticipated contest resulted in an extremely impressive showing from Sandhagen. After landing some solid low kicks and jabs in the opening couple of minutes, ‘The Sandman’ promptly took the fight to the floor and landed some solid ground and pound before the horn sounded to end the opening round. Then, in round two, Cory Sandhagen once again got Deiveson Figueiredo to the floor and wound up finishing him with a knee bar submission hold. The bout was ruled a TKO stoppage due to injury, but there was no doubt that ‘Figgy’ tapped from the leg lock.

Chris Taylor - May 3, 2025

Tonight’s UFC Des Moines fight card was headlined by a key men’s bantamweight matchup between Cory Sandhagen and Deiveson Figueiredo. Sandhagen (18-5 MMA) was returning to action for the first time since suffering a decision loss at the hands of Umar Nurmagomedov this past August in Abu Dhabi. Prior to that setback, ‘The Sandman’ had strung together a three-fight winning streak, which included a TKO victory over Song Yadong.

Chris Taylor - May 3, 2025

We have you covered for all of tonight’s UFC Des Moines results, including the bantamweight main event between Cory Sandhagen and Deiveson Figueiredo. Sandhagen (17-5 MMA) will be returning to action for the first time since suffering a decision loss at the hands of Umar Nurmagomedov last August in Abu Dhabi. Prior to that setback, ‘The Sandman’ had strung together a three-fight winning streak, which included a TKO victory over Song Yadong.

Chris Taylor - May 3, 2025

We have you covered for all of tonight’s UFC Des Moines results, including the middleweight co-main event between Reinier de Ridder and Bo Nickal. Nickal (7-1 MMA) was last seen in action this past November at UFC 309, where he outpointed veteran Paul Craig on route to a unanimous decision victory. The 29-year-old has gone a perfect 4-0 thus far inside of the Octagon, earning stoppage wins in three of those four contests.

Chris Taylor - May 3, 2025

We have you covered for all of tonight’s UFC Des Moines results, including the welterweight bout between Santiago Ponzinibbio and Daniel Rodriguez. Ponzinibbio (30-9 MMA) will be returning to action for the first time since scoring a TKO victory over Carlston Harris this past January in Las Vegas. That win snapped a two-fight losing skid for the ‘Argentine Dagger’, who had previously suffered Octagon defeats to Muslim Salikhov and Kevin Holland respectively.

Chris Taylor - May 3, 2025

We have you covered for all of tonight’s UFC Des Moines results, including the lightweight bout between Jeremy Stephens and Mason Jones. Stephens (29-22 MMA) has spent the past few years competing under the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship banner, where he went a perfect 3-0 while scoring TKO victories over Eddie Alvarez and Jimmie Rivera.

Chris Taylor - May 3, 2025

We have you covered for all of tonight’s UFC Des Moines results, including the women’s bantamweight bout between Miesha Tate and Yana Santos. Tate (20-10 MMA) will be competing for the first time since scoring a submission win over Julia Avila in December of 2023. ‘Cupcake, who is a former champion in the division, has gone 2-3 over her past five Octagon appearances overall.

Harry Kettle - May 3, 2025

Cory Sandhagen has given his thoughts on what Sean O’Malley can do to defeat Merab Dvalishvili in their rematch. In the main event of UFC 316, Sean O’Malley will challenge Merab Dvalishvili for the UFC bantamweight championship. Dvalishvili was able to take the belt from ‘Suga’ last year in their first encounter, with many wondering whether or not the outcome would be different if they were to run it back. Well, next month, we’ll get the chance to find out.

Harry Kettle - May 3, 2025

Arman Tsarukyan heavily implied that he still wants to collide with Islam Makhachev after his win at Karate Combat last night. On Friday night, Arman Tsarukyan grappled against Makasharip Zaynukov at Karate Combat 54 in Dubai. It served as the first time that he’s been in active competition since withdrawing from his title fight against Islam Makhachev, which was scheduled to take place at the start of the year. Alas, Arman was able to rebound well here, defeating Zaynukov in a tight and tense affair.

Harry Kettle - May 3, 2025

UFC legend Daniel Cormier has revealed that he wishes he had gone out on top in his mixed martial arts career. When it comes to talking about the greatest of all time, a few names tend to pop up pretty frequently. This includes Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, Amanda Nunes, Demetrious Johnson and Khabib Nurmagomedov. However, there are also a few fringe names that are introduced into the conversation every now and then – with one of them being Daniel Cormier.

Harry Kettle - May 3, 2025

UFC commentator Daniel Cormier has questioned those who have called for Islam Makhachev to be stripped of his lightweight championship. For a while now, fans have been wondering what’s next for Islam Makhachev. The lightweight king is easily one of the best fighters in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and he’s starting to be talked about as one of the best of all time. Regardless of whether or not you agree with that assessment, his body of work speaks for itself.

BJ Penn Staff - May 2, 2025

Muhammad Mokaev may no longer be part of the UFC roster, but there is no questioning his talent. The Russian-born Englishman signed the UFC with a 5-0 record in 2022. It quickly became apparent he was a world class talent. Within a few years, he had beaten the likes of Tim Ellliott, Alex Perez and Manel Kape to improve his pro MMA record to 13-0. However, things then took a turn for the worst — and not because he lost a fight.

BJ Penn Staff - May 2, 2025

Francis Ngannou has broken his silence after he was involved in a fatal vehicle accident in his home country of Cameroon. Ngannou is the former UFC heavyweight champion. Given that he vacated that title to leave the promotion, he remains the lineal heavyweight king in MMA. Unfortunately, he is dealing with yet another unspeakable tragedy in his life outside the cage. Just years after the passing of his infant son, Ngannou was involved in a fatal motorcycle crash in Cameroon. The incident left a 17-year-old girl dead.

BJ Penn Staff - May 2, 2025

Ilia Topuria has confirmed the date for his next UFC fight. Spain’s Topuria is one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in MMA at the moment. He has been particularly impressive in his last two fights.

BJ Penn Staff - May 2, 2025

ONE Championship will not be returning to the United States this summer as planned. The Singapore-based martial arts promotion, which offers MMA, Muay Thai, kickboxing and submission grappling bouts, was slated to return to the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on August 1. Regrettably, that plan has been scrapped. The promotion now intends to return to city in June 26 of 2026 — more than a year from now.

Fernando Quiles Jr. - May 2, 2025

Reinier de Ridder senses that many fans and fighters don’t like Bo Nickal, and he doesn’t understand why that is the case. De Ridder will share the Octagon with Nickal in the co-main event of UFC Des Moines on Saturday. While Nickal wasn’t the first choice of opponent for the No. 13-ranked middleweight, de Ridder likes the booking because he’s facing a rising name. There has been a ton of buzz surrounding Nickal ever since his UFC debut.

Fernando Quiles Jr. - May 2, 2025

One UFC veteran doesn’t think Jack Della Maddalena should be counted out against Belal Muhammad. Maddalena will be challenging Muhammad for the UFC Welterweight Championship on May 10. The title fight will headline UFC 315 in Montreal. Muhammad is the favorite to retain his gold, but are people sleeping on Maddalena?