MMA News

Tom Taylor - July 22, 2018

The UFC Hamburg main event occurred at light heavyweight, where former champion and MMA legend Mauricio Shogun Rua looked to extend his streak to four-straight, and perhaps earn himself a light heavyweight title shot. His adversary in this high stakes challenge was fearsome contender Anthony Smith, who stepped in to replace Volkan Oezdemir on short notice. To say Anthony Smith rose to the occasion would be a mammoth understatement.

Tom Taylor - July 22, 2018

The UFC Hamburg co-main event occurred in the light heavyweight division, where former title challenger Glover Teixeira looked to extend his streak to two-straight against Corey Anderson, who replaced the injured Ilir Latifi on short-notice. As expected, the wrestler Anderson sought to ground the knockout puncher Teixeira early in this fight. The American was able to succeed on a number of takedowns in the first round, though Teixeira was able to return to his feet each time. Anderson’s final takedown of the round nearly ended in disaster, as he dove in into a deep guillotine choke, and might not have survived had the round not ended.

Tom Taylor - July 22, 2018

The fourth bout of the UFC Hamburg main card occurred in the middleweight division, where Brazilian striker Vitor Miranda collided with Moroccan-German World Series of Fighting veteran Abu Azaitar. The German fighter began this contest with extreme aggression, wading in repeatedly with huge punches, as the crowd chanted his name. Miranda, meanwhile, seemed content to hang back and assess his foe’s timing. Eventually, Miranda succeeded on a takedown, which he used to rack up a bit of control time. As the round wore down, however, Azaitar exploded back to his feet, where he unleashed a meteor shower of looping punches until the horn sounded.

Tom Taylor - July 22, 2018

Midway through the UFC Hamburg main card, heavyweight veteran Stefan Struve collided with Polish contender Marcin Tybura. After a measured start to the first round, Tybura completed a single leg takedown with apparent ease. From there, the Polish heavyweight spent several minutes in top position, landing some nice shots to Struve’s body and head, while staying out of danger in his foe’s wiry guard. Eventually, however, referee Marc Goddard stood the contest up. After a brief period on the feet, during which Struve landed some nice low kicks, Tybura closed out the round with a deftly timed double-leg takedown.

Tom Taylor - July 22, 2018

The first bout of the UFC Hamburg main card, which aired on Fox Sports 1 on Sunday afternoon, occurred in the lightweight division, where England’s Marc Diakiese collided with Hamburg, Germany’s own Nasrat Haqparast. Round one unfurled entirely on the feet, where Haqparast worked to navigate Diakiese’s significant reach advantage. Though he was able to land some nice shots in close, he also absorbed some punishing offense from Diakiese.

Tom Taylor - July 22, 2018

On Sunday, the UFC returned to Hamburg, Germany for the first time since September of 2016. This UFC Hamburg card was headlined by a light heavyweight showdown between former champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and new contender Anthony Smith, who replaced Volkan Oezdemir on short notice. The co-main event, meanwhile, also occured at light heavyweight, as former title challenger Glover Teixeira collided with wrestling specialist Corey Anderson, who replaced the injured Ilir Latifi on short notice.

Drake Riggs - July 21, 2018

Another fun night for Invicta FC is in the books. And throughout all the action, we may have seen a UFC bout set up in the process. In the evening’s co-main event, the 145-pound weight class was put on display as top prospects Felicia Spencer and Ukraine’s Helena Kolesnyk went to battle.

Chris Taylor - July 21, 2018

Former UFC featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo will make his return to the octagon at next weekend’s UFC on FOX event in Calgary, Alberta. Jose Aldo will be squaring off with heavy handed Jeremy Stephen’s at Saturday’s UFC on FOX 30 event, which airs live from the Scotiabank Saddledome.

Drake Riggs - July 21, 2018

Looks like things are about to be able to finally move forward in the fighting world for the UFC megastar, Conor McGregor. With his immediate career seemingly up in the air after the whole UFC 223 bus incident, McGregor is reportedly on the verge of some clarity.

Chris Taylor - July 21, 2018

UFC lightweight standout Leonardo Santos (16-3-1 MMA) was expected to make his highly anticipated return to the octagon at June’s UFC Fight Night 131 event. Unfortunately for fights fans, the Brazilian submission specialist suffered an injury and was forced off of the June 1 fight card.

Chris Taylor - July 21, 2018

Mixed martial arts veteran Chris Leben is coming out of retirement to fight the “New York Bad Ass” Phil Baroni under the World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation banner. MMAFighting was first to report the news.

Drake Riggs - July 20, 2018

After overcoming the odds once before as well as a crippling foot injury on top of it, the inaugural UFC flyweight champion Nicco Montano is ready to carry the underdog status into UFC 228 once again. The opening odds for Montano’s very first title defense against former bantamweight title challenger Valentina Shevchenko have been released by Bet DSI. And they set a record that a champion doesn’t want to have.

Drake Riggs - July 20, 2018

The “Korean Zombie” is ready to return once again! And this time around it will be against a very notable former UFC champion. After taking four years off due to mandatory military service, Chan Sung Jung returned in February 2017 to shake off the rust by knocking out Dennis Bermudez in the first round of their UFC Houston main event.

Drake Riggs - July 20, 2018

Looking for a fight of her own against seemingly anyone, Cris “Cyborg” Justino isn’t generally one that attracts opponents. In the UFC’s borderline non-existent featherweight division that consists of only two legitimate 145ers, something needs to change. That something being additional fighters.

Drake Riggs - July 20, 2018

“I’m in, man [to fill in at UFC 227 for Volkan Oezdemir]. I got a pretty tall task ahead of me, ya know, with [Mauricio] ‘Shogun’ [Rua]. But if it goes well and I get out of there uninjured, I have no problem leaving here and going straight to LA. I’m in.

Tom Taylor - July 20, 2018

Speaking on a recent episode of Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show, former World Series of Fighting champ Justin Gaethje said that he will consider retiring from MMA if he’s outclassed by James Vick in the main event of UFC Lincoln on August 25. “I’m so much better than James Vick,” Gaethje said. “It sucks to say it, but if I was to go out there and get outclassed by James Vick, I’d have to hang them up.”

Tom Taylor - July 20, 2018

Israel Adesanya has an opponent in mind for his next fight. And no, it’s not Paulo Costa. Instead, Adesanya is eyeing a fight with former UFC middleweight champion and MMA GOAT contender Anderson Silva.

Tom Taylor - July 20, 2018

Originally, surging UFC lightweight contender James Vick was supposed to meet Paul Felder at last weekend’s UFC Boise card. When Al Iaquinta withdrew from his August 25th UFC Lincoln main event battle with Justin Gaethje, however, Vick got the call to replace him, and was transplanted from one card to the other. Fighting Gaethje instead of Felder, of course, was just fine with Vick.