MMA

8:00 AM ET Dustin Poirier had a pretty good weekend. He beat up Conor McGregor for the second time in six months in Saturday’s UFC 264 main event in Las Vegas, and beyond the big bump in his bank account that came with a night in the cage with the biggest star in MMA, Poirier

11:00 PM ET LAS VEGAS — Retired UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov does not believe Conor McGregor will ever return to the top of mixed martial arts, and believes the sport should stop supporting his former rival after Saturday’s loss to Dustin Poirier. Nurmagomedov, who retired from MMA in 2020, defeated McGregor in a title

7:41 AM ET The UFC 264 main event only lasted one round, but Dustin Poirier did plenty in his victory over Conor McGregor to prove he deserves the first title shot at Charles Oliveira. Is Poirier already the best lightweight in the world? As for McGregor, the misstep that caused a serious leg injury brought

4:36 PM ET LAS VEGAS — The UFC has lost the opening fight on perhaps its biggest pay-per-view event of the year. A middleweight fight between Hu Yaozong and Alen Amedovski was canceled Saturday afternoon due to COVID-19 protocol issues in Amedovski’s camp, UFC officials told ESPN. The UFC 264 card, which takes place Saturday

11:13 PM ET A day after suffering a gruesome leg injury in his loss to Dustin Poirier in UFC 264 in Las Vegas, Conor McGregor underwent successful surgery, he and his management team said on Sunday night. “Conor is in recovery after 3 hours of surgery. The surgery was successful repairing fractures of his tibia

2:21 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Conor McGregor was sitting and leaning against the cage, chest heaving. His face was bruised, blood streaming from his left ear. He was a beaten man. “Doctor’s stoppage! Doctor’s stoppage!” he yelled toward the center of the cage, trying to make a face-saving insistence that the cageside doctor had ended

12:43 AM ET LAS VEGAS — Dustin Poirier now owns two victories over the biggest star in the history of mixed martial arts. This one, though, didn’t end in the cleanest way. Poirier hit Conor McGregor with a combination at the end of the first round of Saturday night’s highly anticipated UFC 264 main event.

11:44 PM ET Greg Hardy thought he had Tui Tuivasa hurt. And maybe he did. But he didn’t have him hurt enough. Hardy, 32, suffered the second knockout loss of his career, as Tuivasa, of Sydney, put him down with a counter left hook just 67 seconds into their heavyweight fight at UFC 264. The

5:19 PM ET LAS VEGAS — Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor will meet for a third time Saturday in the main event of UFC 264 at T-Mobile Arena, and a capacity crowd will be on hand for a Las Vegas card for the first time since March 7, 2020. Poirier stopped McGregor at UFC 257

7:30 AM ET LAS VEGAS — Let’s start off by establishing one thing: This isn’t Conor McGregor‘s last chance at UFC championship relevance. Let’s say he were to lose to Dustin Poirier — for the second time in six months — at UFC 264 on Saturday inside T-Mobile Arena. He would definitely be in “the

11:20 AM ET The UFC is working on Khamzat Chimaev‘s highly anticipated return to the Octagon — a welterweight matchup against Li Jingliang in October. Contracts have not been signed, but both sides are agreeable to the matchup, multiple sources told ESPN. The 170-pound bout is expected to take place at UFC 267 in October.

12:47 PM ET LAS VEGAS — One of the most anticipated trilogy bouts in MMA history is now official. Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor both successfully made weight Friday morning here at the UFC Apex. Poirier and McGregor both weighed in at 156 pounds. The two men will meet in the main event of UFC

6:59 AM ET On April 6, 2013, MMA coach Mark Henry was at Ericsson Global Arena in Stockholm to corner one of his fighters. It was the same card that featured the UFC debut of Conor McGregor. McGregor earned a KO-of-the-night bonus with a first-round stoppage of Marcus Brimage. Henry, watching from the locker room,

11:05 PM ET LAS VEGAS — As promised, the “old” Conor McGregor was back Thursday. At least the one outside the cage. The UFC superstar had to be held back from opponent Dustin Poirier by security right at the start of the UFC 264 prefight news conference and then kicked Poirier in the leg during

7:26 AM ET LAS VEGAS — Conor McGregor said Dustin Poirier was not his complete focus heading into UFC 257 earlier this year. In a video interview with ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith published Thursday, McGregor admitted that Poirier wasn’t the only thing on his mind before the second fight of their series back in

7:17 AM ET BOCA RATON, Fla. — It’s 2 p.m. on a Wednesday, and Dustin Poirier is methodically wrapping his hands at an empty boxing gym owned by his longtime coach, Dyah Davis. He is 17 days out from his lightweight trilogy fight against Conor McGregor in the main event of UFC 264, and though

1:37 PM ET LAS VEGAS — The most significant regulator of combat sports has made a huge move in the way it deals with marijuana. The Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) voted Wednesday to no longer discipline fighters for cannabis. NSAC, which regulates some of the most high-profile boxing and MMA fights in the world,

6:46 AM ET The UFC has sold the branding rights to the uniforms worn by fighters in the Octagon, in what sources told ESPN is a long-term deal valued in the low nine figures over the length of the contract. The UFC on Wednesday morning announced a partnership with Crypto.com as the promotion’s “official fight