MMA

11:22 PM ET Alexander Volkov has been on the cusp of ascending into the heavyweight elite for several years. He has been missing only that one big, signature finish. He got it Saturday night. Volkov took out legend Alistair Overeem via TKO at 2 minutes, 6 seconds of the second round in the main event

2:28 PM ET A fighter hoping to make his UFC debut this weekend will have to wait. Askar Askar was not medically cleared to compete Saturday night at UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas, the promotion announced. His scheduled bout with Cody Stamann has been canceled. Askar took the fight earlier this week on short

4:54 PM ET A pair of UFC veterans will attempt to take another step forward in their respective championship pursuits Saturday night as former champion Frankie Edgar and heavyweight legend Alistair Overeem will bring almost 100 fights worth of experience into the Octagon. Overeem (47-18) will face Alexander Volkov (32-8) in a five-round, heavyweight main

8:30 AM ET You can find tape of Alistair Overeem‘s professional MMA debut online if you want to see it — although don’t expect to watch it in high definition. It was Oct. 24, 1999. Overeem was 19 years old, and he fought a very muscular older opponent by the name of Ricardo Fyeet, aka

9:49 PM ET Two of the biggest fan favorites in UFC history — and a pair of former teammates — will fight this spring. UFC veterans Donald Cerrone and Diego Sanchez have verbally agreed to a May 8 contest, sources confirmed to ESPN on Thursday. The bout will be contested at welterweight, sources said. While

8:38 PM ET UFC women’s bantamweight fighter Marion Reneau tested positive for the coronavirus and her bout with Macy Chiasson is now off the UFC Fight Night card Saturday in Las Vegas, Reneau announced Thursday on Instagram. Reneau wrote that the bout will be postponed to Feb. 27. Sources confirmed to ESPN that the fight

7:41 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim Here comes Frankie Edgar again. UFC cageside announcers have made that pronouncement on many fight nights through the years as Edgar went on the attack, or battled back, or rose above expectations. Edgar has shown, as much as anyone in mixed martial arts, that when you’re perpetually in motion, you

1:53 PM ET The UFC has moved a highly anticipated heavyweight matchup between Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Ciryl Gane into a main event slot on Feb. 27, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday. The heavyweight fight was originally targeted for a card on March 13. However, the UFC changed it to a five-round headliner at

8:37 PM ET The UFC has made several changes official ahead of its next card. Julio Arce and Andre Ewell have been removed from UFC Fight Night on Saturday in Las Vegas because of COVID-19 protocols, the UFC announced Tuesday. In addition, Alex Da Silva was pulled from his bout because of an injury. All

11:29 AM ET Michael Chandler has a bold plan for his UFC run, and so far he’s executing it perfectly. The former three-time Bellator lightweight champion stormed onto the UFC scene with a first-round knockout of contender Dan Hooker at UFC 257 on Jan. 23. Chandler plans to fight twice more this year en route

3:08 PM ET Just a little more than a week after his career-defining win over Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier has not yet decided on his next move. There is one thing that is paramount in his mind over all else, though: becoming the undisputed UFC lightweight champion. Poirier is a former interim UFC lightweight champion.

7:14 AM ET Brett Okamoto Close ESPN Staff Writer MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun Marc Raimondi All eyes are on the UFC lightweight division, where many of the biggest names in MMA reside, and where many of the biggest question marks are fueling heated debates. The

2:54 PM ET Next month’s Chris Weidman vs. Uriah Hall fight is being moved. Their scheduled fight at UFC 258 on Feb. 13 has been canceled, sources say, after Weidman tested positive for COVID-19 recently. The current plan is for the fight to be moved to UFC 261 on April 24, according to the sources.

1:23 PM ET USADA gave a six-month suspension to UFC women’s bantamweight contender Raquel Pennington on Thursday for the use of two banned substances, the agency announced. According to a USADA release, Pennington informed UFC’s anti-doping partner on Nov. 17 that she had used two prohibited drugs: 7-keto-DHEA and AOD-9064. USADA tested Pennington and the

8:33 AM ET At the UFC 257 postfight news conference in Abu Dhabi — just moments after Dustin Poirier defeated Conor McGregor in a blockbuster event — the man of the hour compared his two-week experience on Fight Island to being in “a prison in my own mind.” “You couldn’t call this Fight Island,” Poirier

7:39 PM ET UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman says he “shattered” his nose in sparring just two weeks before defending his 170-pound title against Jorge Masvidal in July. Usman (17-1) is scheduled to make his third title defense next month, against Gilbert Burns (19-3) at UFC 258 on Feb. 13 in Las Vegas. The matchup

7:49 AM ET A pretty good indication that a UFC fighter is hot is when Conor McGregor is calling him out, rather than the other way around. And when Nate Diaz, who rarely calls out anyone, joins the chorus, the heat is undeniable. That’s the position Dustin Poirier finds himself in after his second-round TKO

12:37 PM ET A pretty good indication that a UFC fighter is hot is when Conor McGregor is calling him out, rather than the other way around. And when Nate Diaz, who rarely calls out anyone, joins the chorus, the heat is undeniable. That’s the position Dustin Poirier finds himself in after his second-round TKO